


Out of the Storm: Building a New Normal

by Citadel_Monitor



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: As much as I would like to forget the 4th series of Sherlock I am using it for this fic., CPTSD, Dry Humping, Dysfunctional Family, Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Fluff, Frottage, Homophobic Language, Interpersonal Drama, M/M, Neurological Disorders, Not Beta Read, PTSD, Parentlock, Past Child Abuse, Rating May Change, Therapy, flashbacks to domestic abuse, homophobic micro aggressions, mycroft holmes is a stressed out oldest child., sloppy kisses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2018-10-26 21:02:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 64,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10794687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Citadel_Monitor/pseuds/Citadel_Monitor
Summary: John and Sherlock find themselves adjusting to life after the chaotic storm that was their past couple of years, what with Moriarty, that one creepy asshole who black mailed everyone, that thing about Mary, and oh yeah finding out you got a forgotten sibling, who pretty much put all the pieces together to have the previous events happen in the first place. John is learning to live with his PTSD in new circumstances, and Sherlock is trying to chip away at the layers of trauma that tends to come with isolation and siblings acting out.Meanwhile in a little cottage up in Sussex the Holmes parents decide to gently meddle in their kids lives, because the hands off approach really blew up in their faces.





	1. The Holmes parents have a little chat...

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so this is basically one of my first fics that I have written in great length. I am a rather busy fellow who only works on these things when I need to clear my mind. So if anything don't expect me to regularly update at the same time. But I will do my best to see this fic to a satisfactory ending. But I got 7 more chapters already typed up.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fireside chat that starts a plot...

Chapter 1

"Violet, dear, do you ever wish you could just brag about the kids to your colleagues?" Said Siger.

"Siger, are you saying I am not proud of all my kids? I don't exactly see you writing anyone about them." Snipped Violet.

"I mean of course you are proud of them all, but we don't know know what Mycroft does other than taking after Uncle Ruddy and I am still not sure if my brother was a malevolent or benevolent force in he government, that boy does seem to keep so many secrets. Sherlock well, we don't need to brag about him, his roommate does that enough and I mean it does make the conversations easier since we aren't the ones who started it," said Siger quite earnestly.

"John is a rather nice man for Sherlock, and I still can't put my finger on what is going on between them, because at this point they are raising that child together. And as much as I say I don't want to pressure any of them into giving us grandkids, I honestly feel like Sherlock might be our only chance. After all it is a different time, if they are together they might as well just make it all fine and legal, it would be nice to provide for Rosie," grinned Violet.

"But what about Eurus?" questioned Siger. "She does seem to be making progress despite her start, I was talking with Philip, Marsha, and Paul and they all have their different theories about how to best get her into a spot to be at least be able to leave Sherringford. I mean they all have different ways, but I mean it would be nice wouldn't it?" 

Violet laughed, "I'd love for Eurus to come out sometimes too, but I swear to g-d if you listen to Philip you better be willing to listen to Christina, because she seems to be his better voice of reason, you know she stopped him from making that experiment from going out of hand that one time. I mean Paul could be helpful in getting a better read on her. Sherlock probably used his work, do you ever see him practice faces until he gets the right one for what he is about to do, I bet you he got it from his work. But Marsha, I like Marsha, I think she would be the most practical out of them all. But I mean Mycroft did really cock it up by isolating her this whole time. I don't know what kind of recovery there is for such an experience. Especially given how she was before this whole ordeal." Violet frowned staring into the fire.

Siger looked into the fire as well, he took a sip of tea. "Do you think we could've stopped any of that? I mean what if we were in the city instead of the manor? Do you think they could've gotten friends and turn out different. I mean it was only us out in the country for so long? Do you think we isolated them? I mean the only other child was Victor, and he was the ground keeper's son? I mean we both enjoyed our solitude, but do you think that was really a good way of raising kids, knowing what we know now? I mean yes they did not get along with other kids when we tried to have them meet with our colleagues's kids, but what if we really pushed it? Come to think of it what ever happened to the Hunter family? You knew the husband from Cambridge and the wife taught there as well."

Violet chuckled, "well the last time I talked to Hiram, he moved to CalTech to work the JPL, his wife is now at Oxford teaching Literature, most of the kids are together running some genetic tech company in San Francisco. One of the kids from the younger set of twins is an associate psychology professor who specializes in trauma and CPTSD at UCSF, Hiram thinks it is hilarious but Moira is offended by it, she thinks that all her daughter's work is just an academically sponsored hate campaign against her. She also apparently is head of her own program to help people who have been conserved get back to living outside of hospital settings. The youngest is currently in med school to be a plastic surgeon and urologist, so she's in San Francisco with her siblings because the doctor she wants to work under is there and apparently it has a high concentration of the kind of clients she wants. Hiram said the youngest son jokes that one of these days he is going to randomly hire Sherlock for a job just to get in slapping distance. I am not sure if it is about Cluedo or the fact that they were roommates for their first year at Cambridge. Hiram also says that ever since that meeting, his kids got along so much better. Apparently the Aithne kept asking Hiram to ask us to set up play dates for quite some time.." 

Siger sighed, "Sherlock didn't play by the rules, but from what I've heard Sherlock keeps making the same mistake. That delete function of his mind is rather dreadful, it amazes me what he deletes. Do you think he thinks it is doing him any good or do you think it distresses him? I do remember him asking but that was so soon after we thought she died." 

Violet shrugged, "I think whatever it does for him, works until he is surprised, but he never liked surprises did he? Do you remember how much trouble he had with that mind palace? At first we all just thought he was just day dreaming, but he was just thinking, and the doctors wanted him medicated, I mean he just needed time to catch up with his brain, they thought it was seizures. Apparently Hiram had trouble with Aithne around that time too, she apparently tried to set fire to her twin, and a good chunk of her research is based around the aftermath of the experience. Aithne apparently had this delusion that she was not her own person, and had to lash out at her twin, Astana, to free herself, but it ended up with their mother employing some rather intense attachment parenting techniques that apparently exacerbated her more. Also who the hell calls their kids fire and water and expect them to get along. Turns out she also had CIPA, but they didn't find out till she was older, they found out the age most kids with it die, Moira thinks it played a part in why she was so prone to hurting her siblings and other kids, she probably didn't know that what she was doing was hurting them."

Siger smirked, "maybe Eurus and her could've made great friends. Then again if I am remembering that day right, I think they were the only ones who got along, they spent it playing with airplanes. Mycroft got stuck in a tree getting away from the oldest twins because Mycroft made some mean remarks about them being dyslexic. Sherlock got in a fight with Blaze over Cluedo, and that really left a mark on Blaze because that was the first thing he yelled at Sherlock when they realized they were going to be roommates at Cambridge, Sherlock didn't recognize him of course, but Miriam and Hiram did tell us it was probably for the best that we didn't jog Sherlock's memory when it came to Blaze because it helped with the whole trans thing. Of course Sherlock deduced it by day two, at least it wasn't when they were in a group, lord knows he was more tactless back when he was younger. Oh g-d why do we know that much about those kids?"

"Because Hiram won't shut up about them," snapped Violet.

Siger frowned, "You have to admit that seems like it could be fun, talking about the kids with our colleagues, I mean to the point that it is exhausting for others to hear."

Violet sighed, "you know I think we did our best given what we got."

Siger shifted uncomfortably, "but what if we didn't? Why did we trust Ruddy, none of us knew what the hell he was doing, and Mycroft was 18 when Ruddy had him inform us that Eurus was supposedly dead. I mean Mycroft seems to have sucked into whatever secret world Ruddy had at a pretty young age. Like why did we put so much on Mycroft? And like Sherlock was always going on about how Mycroft was always watching him and interfering with his social life when he left for school, I mean if it wasn't for Mycroft being so set on making sure Sherlock met the right people to the point that he blew up and started to spend time with only the worst of people. I mean do you think he would've had that rough spot? I know you have found just as many hidden cameras as I have. I think that changes how people act, and as much as I have tried to think that this is how every family experiences CCTV, I am starting to think it isn't. I mean I am sure if Mycroft left his post the government would fall and it is a rather precarious time to fall apart. But what if we just gave Sherlock or John an incentive to just leave for a place with a lot less surveillance especially surveillance run by his literal big brother. Do you think he would be different?"

Violet smiled, "I think you are on to something, I am going to make some calls."

"Violet, dear, what are you planning?" Said, Siger, not being quite sure if she was planning something good or something bad, and that concerned him. 

Violet laughed, "oh you'll see, we can call it an experiment." Siger smiled and nodded, not being quite sure of what she was thinking of, the combo of "experiment" and laughter was a bit of a worrisome combo, especially when a Holmes was involved.


	2. One Hour is Rarely Ever Enough Time For Therapy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sherlock and John meet with Ella for their first therapy session as a couple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So not going to lie, I am not at all familiar with the NHS system outside of what it has to do with my job, and you know what good on you NHS for finally taking your heads out of your ass when it comes to the new generation of HIV Prevention. Believe me it is probably going to be a thing that keeps on popping up in this story. I've tried to edit as much as I could to fix it but I am sure some things managed to slip.

Chapter 2

Ella stared at the two men in front of her, "I think you both have made a lot of strides in your treatment and I commend you both on deciding to start this journey together in a way that gives you both a space to maintain this relationship in a healthy manner while protecting the strides you made in treatment. Yes things have not been easy for the two of you on the journey of your relationship but at the same time you both feel that you make the other a better person. And I understand that both of you are comfortable having what you have mentioned in past individual sessions mentioned in joint sessions, so I think we can proceed. I am curious how did this new element of your relationship start."

Sherlock sighed and slumped back in the couch covering his face.

John grinned and said, "Rosie is a very curious and, at times, mischievous child, like all 2 year olds. She was snooping around our stuff, and found Sherlock's letter box, and she happened to leave a bunch of them out. And after reading the words he wrote I knew I had to tell him that I felt the same way, and this past week has been great, I almost wish I said something sooner."

Sherlock sat up and smiled, "your letter writing exercise it kinda spilled over into other emotions."  
Ella's neutral expression cracked into a slight smile. 

Sherlock continued, "I mean at first made it easier to lash out at folks that I just couldn't reach, but it also made it easier to get out the other thoughts I thought I couldn't say out loud because I feared that it would ruin what john and I have. Ultimately I kept all the positive letters and burned all the angry ones."

John raised his eye brows, "so who were the angry letters aimed at?" 

Sherlock's shoulders tensed up, "well you certainly weren't that many of them. I think I've worked through that already." He shifted uncomfortably in the couch.

John looked worried, "I messed up, I shouldn't have punched you when you came back and I definitely shouldn't have beat you in the morgue two years ago. I mean I have been working on my outbursts and I won't let it happen again." 

Ella nodded.

Sherlock relaxes slightly, "yes John I know you are sorry and that you are working on it. I forgive you because what you went through to hit those moments that is my fault I deserved it." 

John and Ella sighed. "You didn't deserve it, i should've used my words but at the time I didn't know what to say. I have been mindful ever since, and I struggle but I have to be better because it isn't just us, there is Rosie too, she doesn't need to live with that. I lived in that kind of household I about to put her through that too," said John. Ella nodded, acknowledging John's words.

Sherlock nodded, "and I promise to be mindful when making decisions that affect all of us. At the same time I hope we never end up in that position again." 

John laughed, "yeah I don't think we need a fourth criminal mastermind coming for you, I mean how many enemies can one man make?"

Sherlock laughed, "you would be surprised. I am not exactly an easy person to get along with. Through the years I have gotten better at it, learning to care and all, especially since you have been in my life." He started to frown, "I know I built a lot of walls around myself and written over or forgot about things to make it easier to not care, but all that happened with my sister, I realized that I had to change that, because I wasn't always like this, I wasn't always alone." He sunk further into the couch, "I don't have to be like how I am, I am starting to change and at times I wish I could change faster, but this is taking time, and I regret how much time it is taking."

John reached out for Sherlock's hand, which was balled up in a fist, john's hand hovered for a second as is silently asking permission. Sherlock opened his hand and took hold of john's, their fingers interlocked. Sherlock's frown broke out to a small smile, he started sit a bit more taller in his chair, as if holding John's hand made him a bit more confident. He pulled their hands closer to himself, John being a much shorter man henceforth shorter arms had to shift over closer to Sherlock's side to the point that john ended up sitting shoulder to shoulder with Sherlock.

Ella nodded, and internally she thought that the way that the physical contact was initiated and acted out was a good sign for the couple, they seemed like they were both mindful of how they interacted with each other and boundaries were set so far. She thought for a second and said, "Sherlock, it is okay to mourn the time lost to trauma, and it is going to take a lot of time to break down the walls you built to protect yourself from what you faced in the past. But you have made so much progress, and that progress deserves to be acknowledged. Yes what happened to you and your sister has indeed shaped the person you are today, and some of that experience has lead you to finding more complications and brought some dangerous people into your life, but you have started to acknowledge that, and that is a big thing for any person, especially because you lived with this for so long, but also remember you are no longer alone, you have people who love and respect you. You are very brave not only for what you've gone through but also how you are facing it." 

John nodded and looked at Sherlock, and gently squeezed his hand as if to say that he to reassure Sherlock that what she is saying was true.

Ella's neutral expression once again cracked a small smile, "just all is not loss, together we can work on looking at what was loss and what can be regained, and I am sure you can live a better life on your terms." 

Sherlock smiled and nodded and turned to John, "I want to be better. I've been sober for over two years at this point. I am talking more with siblings, even Eurus is starting to talk it isn't just the violin conversations anymore. I am trying with Mycroft to set some boundaries but that is really hard, l don't think he is willing or even able to stop keeping me under surveillance. I mean Molly and I are having a better friendship, I am trying to be mindful of making it a more equal relationship in terms of the effort going into it. Also I am trying to be a little more thankful for Greg and the rest of his team because I mean helping them in cases tends to keep me from going all into one thing because I guess that is overwhelming. Lord knows when I focus on something it consumes me and if it isn't a case I think all other pursuits might make me seem like someone who exhausting to be around. I mean if it isn't for the cases I think the stuff I would focus on would be Rosie or john or Eurus, i mean right now it seems to be people that hold my interest. And I think that intense focus can lead to people getting bored with me and maybe even looking for an out."

John frowned, "Sherlock, I am never going to be bored with you, when you were gone, I wasn't really living. I was lost without you and the life we had together, I was almost back to how I was before I met you. I am pretty sure your brother snuck in and stole my gun at some point because it was only after you returned that I was able to find it again."

Ella frowned. 

"Oh wait Dr Thompson, I am no longer suicidal and have no plans for such, but you have to admit if someone needed to have a gun, we would be a reasonable candidate for such," said John.

Ella nodded but still wrote something on to her note book. 

"I mean if it makes you feel better it is in a gun safe when not in use and totally out of reach from Rosie," said John trying his best to sound responsible to Ella.

Ella shrugged, "I think I can trust the two of you to be responsible with a gun." 

John started laughing; Sherlock nudged him. John stopped laughing. 

Ella narrowed her gaze at the two of them. "Okay now you got me worried again. Otherwise how have things been? I know that you both recently started sharing a room since Rosie turned 2 and john felt like she was too old to have her dad as a roommate. Has it brought up any issues?"

John twitched, "it's a bit rough to have nightmares, like Rosie sleeps like a rock, so she never woke up when I was having a nightmare so I usually just woke up on by my myself from my nightmares. But Sherlock is a light sleeper when he sleeps. So sometimes he tries to wake me up when I have nightmares, and I mean it is one thing to wake up my own, but sometimes when Sherlock wakes me up I panic and it is almost like I am still there, and Sherlock has to deal with me when that happens and I feel like that can be something that can trigger him given that I have attacked him in the past. Like last night I had another nightmare and when I saw him, it was if he paused like his mind went blank, that is a scary thing to see in Sherlock. His heart rate was through the roof and he was having a difficult time breathing. I feel like my nightmares is triggering his anxiety. I mean is there anything I can do for the nightmares? I mean know in the past I rejected a lot of methods, but I think I am willing to give things more consideration now." 

Ella looked at John and said, "John I am impressed that you are taking such considerations for Sherlock's well being and I am glad you are now willing to address this. So you have three options. One is medication, prazosin has been ruled effective for PTSD induced nightmares and PTSD in general, and some of my patients have had great experiences with Seroquel, because for some of them it causes lucid dreaming so they are able to take control of the nightmare, but for others it causes dreamless sleep, yet for others it creates more realistic nightmares, but it is a great medication to cover multiple issues." 

John didn't look to impressed with the idea.

Ella shrugged, "another option is a bit more Cognitive behavior therapy exercises, you write down."

"Nope, not good, I think I can only take so much more writing," interrupted John.

Ella stared at him, a bit annoyed at the interruption, "okay well another option is a service dog."

Sherlock cracked a huge smile and nudged John. John looked at an enthusiastically nodding Sherlock. John turns to Ella, taking a deep breath, "okay i think Sherlock is enthusiastic about a dog, and you know I think it would be good to have a dog. It could probably get us out of the house when we get sucked into a case." 

Ella smiled, "you know I think you both can actually benefit from having a service dog."

John looked a bit worried.

"No John you both don't have to have your own dog, you can share it," stated Ella. "I mean between Sherlock's issues with isolation and over stimulation and you nightmares, I think the right therapy dog can fit you both. I can get the paper work started, so that you can get a therapy dog. And if your landlord objects, then I can get all the required legal documentation you need." 

John laughed, "thanks, I mean I can handle one dog, Rosie, and Sherlock. The idea of two dogs suddenly struck me as daunting. Anyway what goes into getting a service dog?"

Ella raised her eyebrows, "John out of curiosity i'd like to explore that remark a little bit, I mean not to put words in your mouth but the way you listed off a dog, Rosie, and Sherlock, it almost sounds like a list of things you are going to have to take care of."

John looked puzzled, "no, it isn't so much taking care of, it is more of a keeping track of thing. I mean I only got two hands. I feel like if I have an empty hand I am missing something. But I am sure the configuration is possible."

Ella smiled, "I am sure you can make it work." 

 

Sherlock blurted out, "you can hold onto the dog and Rosie and I'll walk ahead of you because you usually are following me anyways, but I'll slow my pace to make sure you can keep up. Or in other settings both of us hold Rosie and we take turns with the dog. Or we get one of those really well trained dogs that keep to their owner's side and the dog becomes a non factor in hand issue... wait a service dog needs to have its leash held at all times."

John laughed, "nice to see you have thought this one out."

Sherlock smiled, "John I already know where the get the dog, a service dog trainer I proved innocent of murder owes me a favor."

Ella looked at the two of them, "okay we get the dog idea is probably a go, and hopefully it works out? Is there any other issues you are dealing with?" 

John shrugged, "I mean I think Sherlock has something he wants to talk about but I am not sure if he wants me in on the conversation." 

Sherlock blushed and curled in on himself, still holding on to John's hand.

Ella looked at Sherlock with a bit of concern, well as much concern as one could have while maintaining some semblance of a neutral expression, "Sherlock you can tell me, I can even have John leave the room if you want."

Sherlock shook his head, took a deep breath, "I don't know if anything I hate repeating myself, maybe we can do a thing where I tell you but like John can hear everything but like it isn't eavesdropping because I want him to hear it?

Ella looked at Sherlock with a bit of amusement, "okay how about this John you see that silk screen over there? Yeah I just use it to cover up the xerox machine. If you feel comfortable just stand behind it. Will that work for you, Sherlock?" 

Sherlock nodded his head in agreement.

John squeezed Sherlock's hand before letting go and taking his place behind the curtain.

"Okay Sherlock what was it that you wanted to share?" Inquired Ella.

Sherlock sighed, "okay I am going to be honest with you, I've never had sex, I don't even like most forms of physical contact. Yet, I want to do things with John and I am afraid that if we were to try and I react poorly. It will ruin things and John will eventually leave me. I mean John likes sex, like for a good chunk of the time we were living together, he had a long string of one night stands and many attempts at dating. I am not sure if that is something I can do right now or maybe even ever." Sherlock swallowed, brought his hands to his face, and curled in on himself, remained silent.

Ella nodded, "okay I am going to have to admit that is beyond the scope of my expertise, but is there any form of touch you enjoy with John?" 

Sherlock lowered his hands and raised his head, I like when he hugs me. I like when we hold hands. I like when we share a bed. I like when he rests his head on my shoulder when we are sitting, I like putting my head on his head when he does that. I like when how he doesn't just do those things, I like how he makes me feel like I have a choice before any of those things happen."

"Nice use of I-statements, Sherlock. But other than past behavior is there anything John has done that makes you feel like him leaving you because of a lack of sexual intimacy," asked Ella.

"No, but I just feel like it can happen," answered Sherlock.

Ella raised her eyebrows, "Sherlock you prize yourself on your observations, I wouldn't think a feeling without lack of evidence would affect you in such a way."

Sherlock groaned, "okay I see your point, but is there anyway I can at least get to the point that I can try to approach sharing that kind of contact with John, because I really, really want to." 

"Okay Sherlock, do you think it would be okay to bring John back from behind the screen," asked Ella.

Sherlock shrugged, "I think that will be absolutely fine."

Ella called out, "John you can come out now." 

John didn't come out.

Ella got up and came by the screen, she could see that John had his eyes closed and he was taking deep breaths. She whispered "John are you okay?"

John took a deep breath and whispered back, "I wouldn't ever leave him. I won't he means to much to me, I would rather go without sex for the rest of my life than go on without him."

Ella whispered back, "then go and tell him that, also good job on not interrupting him."

John nodded, "okay, I'm coming." Ella and John exited from behind the screen. 

They found Sherlock curled up on the couch, he was staring blankly, his mouth occasionally made some chewing motions. John walked over to the couch and offered a hand, "hey Sherlock are you okay?"

Sherlock was still blank. His finger twitches.

John gently stroked Sherlock's hand. "Sherlock are you okay?"

Sherlock jolted to awareness, John's touch brought him back to they were. "Hmm."

"Sherlock are you okay?" Asked John with a look of concern.

Sherlock nodded. "Yes I am." Sherlock wondered why John was asking him if he was okay. It was a question he was regularly asked, but it seemed to be growing frequency and often times just came out of no where.

John offered Sherlock his hand. Sherlock took it, John placed his other hand over Sherlock's, and gave him a look. Sherlock sat up on the couch and John sat next to him, still holding onto Sherlock. "Sherlock I want you know, I won't ever leave you. And you mean so much to me, I'd rather not have sex ever again that go on without you. But if you want to have sex, we can work up to that together. And I know you have a hard time believing me when I say I am going to stay, but you are an important part of my life and Rosie's life. I am going to stay." Sherlock pulled John closer to him on the couch, and John looked at Sherlock before leaning his head on Sherlock's shoulder. Sherlock placed his head on top of his.

Ella looked at Sherlock, "is that something that happens a lot?"

"What?" Said Sherlock.

"The staring thing," said Ella, "John was trying to get your attention and you were unresponsive." 

Sherlock just stared at her, "I don't know what you are talking about."

John looked at Sherlock, and turned to Ella, "I can start recording the info for you Sherlock if you want me to."

Sherlock shrugged his shoulders, "go ahead John, I keep records of observations of you and Rosie, so i appreciate the reciprocation."

Ella nodded, "thank you John, hopefully you'll have some observations for next week. Okay so we only have 10 minutes left, and I would hate for us to delve into something new at the moment, but I think we are at a good spot to leave. I do have a suggestion, for the intimacy issues. I have a colleague named Daniel Rothman, he has a clinic called "the body collective" they specialize in sex therapy but they have had a lot of success with people with contact aversion become comfortable with physical contact of all kinds when it is something they desire to work on. I'll give you a referral."  
Sherlock laughed, "no don't bother he owes me a favor, I can contact him on my own. I solved a murder at their location once, basically one of their therapist was getting charged with manslaughter, but ultimately it wasn't the therapist, it was victim's ex who got it in his head that if he couldn't have the victim no one could. And slipped some peanut oil into the leather conditioner, so when the bullwhip was used on the victim they got exposed to the peanuts the moment the whip cracked into their skin." 

Ella looked at Sherlock wide eyed, "so is there any kind of business you don't have someone who owe you a favor."

Sherlock laughed, "well I don't have anyone who might be convenient for entertainment at a kid's party."

Ella laughed.

John sighed, "Sherlock who wants a clown accused of murder or a magician accused of stealing at a kid's party." 

Sherlock shrugged, "same time next week?"

Ella replied, "yes, also let me pull up the paperwork for a service dog, that way you can get on the list as soon as possible. And do you want me to sign an ROI so that you can bring it over to Daniel, if you decide to see him?"

"Yup, that would be good," said John. Sherlock nodded in agreement.

Ella handed them paperwork and waved them out the door. 

As John and Sherlock exited the medical building and entered the brisk air of London, Sherlock turned to John and said, "let's get a dog," and started to take long strides in one direction. 

John nodded and ran after Sherlock, "maybe we should get Rosie first that way we can be sure to get a dog that gets along with her."

Sherlock stopped and turned around, "check the group text, Mrs. Hudson is taking Rosie to the center so that we can all get a look at a dog that we can all get along with."

John smiled, "thanks for being considerate." Sherlock smiled and offered his hand to John, and with that John and Sherlock walked away holding hands.


	3. It is never a good day when one's parents comes to their job.

Chapter 3

Mycroft sat at his desk, and looked at this appointment book, he wasn't looking forward to his next appointment, it was his parents. He wasn't sure what they wanted because they rarely talk to him since they found out his sister Eurus was still alive. He understood why they were upset but he was only doing what he thought was best, he was sure some day they would understand. He got up from his desk fixed himself a tea, momentarily thinking of just pouring himself a scotch, but choosing against it. It would probably be the best to be sober for this conversation, he could always drink later. Instead he dumped an obscene amount of sugar into his tea. 

The door opened, Violet and Siger walked in looking like they came in with a purpose. Violet stood next to his desk opened her bag and over turned it, an obscene amount of small cameras fell out of it. Mycroft made the mental note to fire whoever was supposed to be in charge of maintaining the surveillance of this parents because obviously they failed at discretion and doing anything about the cameras getting taken. 

They sat down, and Violet said, "Mycroft that is just from one sweep of the house, and we found many more through out the years. This is not normal."

Mycroft gritted his jaw for a beat before responding, "Mother, I can assure you that every citizen of the U.K. Has to live with some level of surveillance. This is perfectly normal."

Violet's eyes narrowed at Mycroft, "we went to visit all the neighbors and not one of them had a bug, we used an anti surveillance device to sweep it, nothing was found. Sure there was plenty of CCTV cameras lying on public property but none of them was in their houses. We are dealing with more surveillance than the normal family."

"It is for your safety," replied Mycroft.

Siger quipped, "I am not so sure your brother had a lot of bugs in his apartment as well, but he still managed to get attacked in his apartment and it even got blown up once. So yes I doubt it is completely for our safety." 

"Okay mother, father, I hope you realize that we live in dangerous times, and that this is the best way for me to protect us," said Mycroft in a low voice. He took a sip from his tea cup, wincing at the fact that it was practically simple syrup with a hint of earl grey at this point. 

Violet looked at Mycroft with a touch of concern, "Mycroft, you have been protecting us since you were young, you had to shoulder the burden of knowing Eurus was still alive for all this time. You apparently have a huge amount of influence in global affairs. But after all that what else do you have to protect us from?"

Mycroft sighed, "I don't know but I am sure another thing will swoop by at any moment, that's just how things go."

"'My, how long has it been since we were last in danger?" Asked Violet.

Mycroft looked at them, pulled his appointment book closer to him, flipped through the pages. Stopped, pulled out another looked through the pages of the one and repeated the process for a few more books. He turned to his parents, "it has been 2 years since any credible threat came your way, otherwise for Sherlock 2 weeks, but that was more of a potential relapse episode that he avoided by changing the park he was going to take Rosie to, he saw some folks he used to use with, wisely he went in the other direction." He went to take another sip of the overly sweet tea, he got up and added more tea to his cup to dilute the syrup concoction in his cup. His parents stare at him. "I know the polite thing to do is offer you both a cup of tea, but I have learned a long time ago, not to offer people a hot cup of tea during a tense conversation in this office." He tried to laugh, but it got stuck in his throat.

Violet and Siger stared at their eldest son, wondering what kind of life he lived for that to be a rule for him. "Mycroft, I know you are concerned, but did you know extreme surveillance and hovering behaviors can change how a person navigates the world?"

Mycroft snorted into his tea, of course he read all the academia on the subject and he had to because he had to justify the increase of CCTV cameras, but this like of questioning was getting boring real fast. "Of course I do, it is my job to know."

Violet looked at her son again, no longer concerned, but with an edge of anger. "Okay Mycroft what about when the hyper surveillance and extreme hovering is aimed at one person?"

Mycroft roughly put down his cup of tea. "If it doesn't have a ICD code, I am not going to say it exists. It doesn't even have a DSM5 code. If the medical authorities say it doesn't exists, well I am just going to have to agree with them."

Siger sighed, "Mycroft, that reaction alone suggests that you know exactly what we are talking about. So maybe you can humor us a bit on the idea of maybe laying off Sherlock on the whole spying thing, we just want to see what behaviors change for him. I mean we understand why you do it, but at the same time maybe it is time to let go. He hasn't gotten the fancy of any criminal masterminds lately and I think he needs some privacy in order to grew a bit more. Also from what I heard it is going to be in the ICD 11."

Mycroft scoffed, "I think he is doing plenty of growing just fine, did you know him and John are together as a "couple", as of two weeks ago, and today they had a couple's therapy appointment mainly because Sherlock is afraid of chasing off John. Which is funny because when they were separated John had to be put on suicide watch and Sherlock kept relapsing every couple of days. Sherlock is just being over dramatic. And they are getting a service dog, I don't know what for but I am assuming it has to do with the nightmares because John does have quite the terrifying reaction to being woken up from his nightmares, it is enough to actually shake Sherlock. I don't know much about their sessions though because Dr. Thompson keeps things hand written and only gives the bare minimum to billing. Which I guess is fine given that most of her clientele are ex-armed forces and special-ops." Mycroft took a deep breath, also amused because his earlier comment about the billing codes was a lie there is a cluster of codes that basically mean the same thing, but he glared at his parents. "Is that why you are here? Is Sherlock putting you up to this, because last week he was also in here asking for a bit of space, something about boundaries being important for healthy relationships. As if Sherlock has boundaries there isn't hiding anything from that man."

"My, did your brother make a request for privacy and you just decided to steamroll right over that request?" Asked Violet, inside she was smiling to hear about John and Sherlock, but of course she is probably going to have to wait to hear it from Sherlock himself before saying anything. At the same time it was a bit distressing to see how much Mycroft knew about Sherlock's life.

"Of course I did, they are my responsibility aren't they? Do you know what that is like? No you didn't because what the hell were you up to that day? Oh kids should be free to go out in nature it isn't too bad because it's all our property. Then why didn't you know about the well! Mycroft can you watch your siblings and make sure nothing happens to them, remember Sherlock's friend is coming over today. I read a damn book while they decide to play hide and go seek, and next thing I know, we had a missing child on our hands. I knew something had to be wrong that day because since when did Eurus ever want to play hide and go seek, she always only wanted to play airplane. Why did we even spend all that time alone anyways? Everything that has happened is because of that day! Why didn't you ever see anything wrong you just always chalked things up as a genius' eccentricities? You knew people were suggesting we take Eurus to get checked out since the day she tried to cut her arm open and the day she sent Sherlock to the hospital because she thought she was tickling him but rather she was scratching him to the point of bleeding." Mycroft sighed, took a sip of tea, and inhaled a deep breath. "The only reason I watch those two so closely is because the day I didn't was the day that changed everything." Mycroft was upset and trying not to show it, but he wasn't too happy about his blow up, he couldn't even get the thoughts out completely in a dignified manner. He took a sip of tea.

Siger and Violet looked at each other and turned to Mycroft, "we're sorry, and we should've been more attentive and you are right we should've gotten Eurus help. And we understand where you are coming from, but I think the time for such acts have passed. Maybe you can give us all the benefit of the doubt and hope we are responsible enough to come to you rather than watching us all the time and sending help when you see it is needed."

Mycroft laughed, "ooh an apology and being told I was right, well this makes up for you always forgetting my birthday." 

Violet and Siger looked panicked then they looked at the calendar, "it's not your birthday, we took you to a musical for your birthday." 

Mycroft laughed further, "I like to see you panic. Also I hate Musicals."

Violet huffed, "Well why didn't you say anything, you used to love them as a child. What happened?"

Mycroft huffed, "Starlight Express!" 

Violet and Sigur looked at Mycroft. "That was your 10th Birthday. You know you could've said something," said Sigur.

Mycroft laughed, "as if that would've made a difference, listening to us was never your strong point."

"Well if you aren't willing to stop spying on your brother, we would like to bring an outside resource for Eurus. Her name is Dr. Aithne Hunter, she is from University of California, San Francisco, she is a research psychiatrist who is head of a re-entry program for forensic and conserved patients leaving institutions. She would probably be a good person to see Eurus, I am sure you remember the Hunter family," said Violet.

Mycroft groaned, of course he remembered them, he had a stern talking to about learning differences that day. "Of course I remember them, was Aithne the one who punched Sherlock or the one who got eurus's airplane stuck in her hair and didn't scream when Eurus ripped out quite a bit of it while trying to retried it."

Violet replied, "the second one, but Aithne, has had plenty of experience with getting people reintegrated into society, many of whom are able to live decent, independent lives. I mean maybe let her have a shot, maybe we can at least get to the point where Eurus can come out for the holidays?" 

Mycroft sighed, "okay I'll look more into Dr. Hunter and I'll give you call. Also i'll talk with Sherlock, otherwise, I don't know if you want to do this experiment so badly why not have him try to go take a vacation in some country where I cannot access their security." Mycroft laughed, "good luck finding a country that does that as well." 

Violet and Siger smiled, "okay that's a start." They got up and exited the room.

Mycroft took two breaths, angrily picked up the phone, it rung twice before getting picked up. "Sherlock you cried to mummy?"

The sound of barking could be heard in the background, "brother, mine, you are going to need to be a little more specific?" Said Sherlock. John could be heard in the background suppressing a laugh.

"You didn't like that I told you no on reducing the surveillance, so you went to mummy. For that I might as well come up with new ways to keep track of you."

"Mycroft, I didn't, I, uh, i uh, I am trying to handle the things I can on my own. Why are you asking?" Asked Sherlock, he sounded distressed and was genuinely surprised that his parents tried talking to Mycroft. The phone sounded like it was dropped.

"Oh come on Sherlock don't pull that over me, you didn't get your way so of course you went to mummy, you are never going to have a private moment again, I swear to g-d, I don't even care what my agents see between you and your John but it wouldn't be the first time they saw things isn't it. He used to bring his girlfriends to your apartment. I have video." hissed Mycroft. He got distracted by his office door getting thrown open with a crack. 

His parents stood at the door, with his father holding a soda can shim, and looking quite pleased with himself. "Are you threatening your brother!" Cried out mrs. Holmes.

Mycroft paused for a moment and said, "no we are just having a conversation, sometimes stronger methods of persuasion are needed for these things."

"No Mycroft there is no position in the world that needs persuasion like that," snapped Violet. "I swear Mycroft, I am starting to feel like you actually like hurting your siblings."

Sherlock and John could be heard from the other line. "Ha, looks like we know which one we are taking home." There was a brief ruffling to be heard as if the phone was getting picked up. "Hey Mycroft, it's me John, sounds like you are busy, mind if we continuing this call some other time. But thanks for calling Sherlock almost wanted to take all the dogs, but during the call one of them really rose to the occasion. Feel free to come by for tea later, I have some words for you."

Violet called out, "John, it's me Violet, Sherlock's mum, do you mind if me and Siger come over as well."

John replied, "not a problem at all, we should be back home by 3:30, but that's around Rosie's nap time, so if you want to be around while Rosie is awake and playful, I'd suggest swinging by around 5." 

"Okay John we'll be by at 5, tell Sherlock we send him love," said Violet.

"Will do, Mrs. Holmes, see you later. Tell Mycroft we hope he still comes by, because some conversations are better had in person," responded John and the line disconnected.

Violet took a deep breath, "Mycroft, I know it is hard to give up control, but you have to admit this is not normal. And while it may have been our normal for quite sometime, things can change. Not all change has to be scary and bad. Sometimes change can be good. Maybe we can take John's invite, and have this conversation as a family."

Mycroft scoffed, "but John is not family."

Violet laughed, "I think Sherlock has a differing opinion." 

Mycroft twitched, "indeed he does, and he has had that opinion for quite some time."

Violet smiled, "see you later dear."

Mycroft nodded his head in acknowledgment. His parents got up and exited for the second time today. Mycroft called out to his parents, "also I am going to have to charge you for the door." 

Violet and Siger laughed as they went down the hall, "deduct it from your trust fund." 

Mycroft huffed, stared at the pointing on his wall and dumped the contents of his tea cup into his plant. He looked at his appointment book, next was a meeting with the American Vice President, he already had to send home three different employees because they were all plotting assassination attempts. This meeting was going to be a whole lot easier than the last one. He also sent a note to Anthea to do a background check on Aitne Hunter, he wondered what his parents were thinking. But really he is trying his best, sometimes the wrong words get the right results.


	4. PAWS: People Animal Wellness Services.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dogs... lots of dogs... and phone calls, irritating, anxiety riddled phone calls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... in writing this I learned that the United States of America has a significantly fucked service dog program when compared to pretty much every where else. I mean yeah I got friends with seeing eye dogs and others with balance or assistance dogs. But they didn't have to jump through as much hoops (unless you count the financial hoops) that disabled folks in other countries do. 
> 
> We don't have a central place to keep track of it all. 
> 
> So basically when I started writing this, I was under the impression that there was a significant onus on the trainer like it is here, but apparently the UK has an intense scheme for it all.

Chapter 4

John wasn't sure where Sherlock was taking him, he just knew they were going to get a service dog. I mean they didn't even talk about it they just came out of Ella's office and knowing it was going to be a thing. Sherlock certainly seemed enthusiastic about it and he wouldn't doubt that he would have help in caring for dog and if anything it probably was a good thing. but service dogs take time. John saw that they were closing in on a large brick building that said "PAWS: People Animal Wellness Services". He saw Mrs. Hudson and Rosie standing out front. 

Rosie waved enthusiastically at the two of them. "Daddy! Sherlock!” She yelled as she ran to them. She pointed at building. “Puppies!”

Sherlock crouched down to take Rosie into a hug and carried her, "no we are not getting a young puppy we are going to get an older puppy. All dogs are puppies if you want to call them as such but we are going to be getting an older puppy, a responsible puppy. The puppy is going to be doing an important job in keeping us all safe." Rosie nodded in understanding. Mrs. Hudson looked at them concerned. "Oh Mrs. Hudson the dog is not a guard dog, it will be a service dog. It's to help with the nightmares and other daily issues we face." Rosie looked at them a bit concerned, "it's okay Rosie, everyone has nightmares, but sometimes folks can have a really hard time waking up from them, so this big puppy's job will be to help wake us up from nightmares. It will also be there to help with other things, as we will discuss as time goes on." 

Rosie smiled she really liked the idea of a dog. She threw herself more into Sherlock's embrace he froze mid-step, Rosie started to slip down. "Daddy! I'm slipping" 

Sherlock had a blank look on his face like he was worried,nervously gnawing at the side of his mouth. He was staring into space, occasionally his fingers twitch.

John turned around and grabbed Rosie from Sherlock's arms. "Sherlock, are you okay?" He gently grabbed Sherlock's arm.

Sherlock shook his head, "yes of course, I am fine." He wasn't quite sure why he was being asked that question, he didn't like that people always asked that question out of the nowhere.

John offered his hand to Sherlock he took it, and they walked up to the door of the shelter and rang the bell.

Mrs.Hudson smiled to herself, they may not be married ones but Mrs. turners' couple doesn't have a child or a dog, so really her John and Sherlock really have them beat. She joined them at the door.

The sounds of over enthusiastic dogs could be heard and the sound of a man calming the dogs before coming to the door. The door opened, and a middle aged, middle eastern man with dark wavy hair in a wheelchair greeted Sherlock, John, Rosie, and Mrs. Hudson. "Hi Sherlock, nice to see you finally accessing my services. My name is Solomon, I met Sherlock when he cleared my dog, Golem, of murder about 8 years back. Come on in." He motioned for them to come in. "Hey Golem you can close the door now." It was then that they noticed the large mastiff opening the door for them. He closed the door and walked up to Solomon, he grabbed the harness. And started pulling Solomon, down the hallway. They got to a door, and Golem opened it for them, it was an office. Golem pulled Solomon to the desk and he motioned for all of them to sit at the couch. Golem went and closed the door before resting next to Solomon. 

Sherlock smiled, "nice to see that Golem is still up and going." 

Solomon laughed, "yeah the little guy just won't quit, he has been a great help in my life. I still can't believe you were able to get him off the hook." 

Sherlock laughed, "I mean obviously the body didn't have any bite marks, I can't believe the cops didn't notice. I guess they just saw this big pup and had to assume it was him."

Solomon sighed, "yeah that's what I get for trying to do my own garbage. Anyway what are you looking for? Service dog, therapy dog, blood hound, or just a pet? We don't do the last two options though, and if that's what you are looking for I can show you some excellent adoption groups and great trainers."

"Solomon, so this is my boyfriend and roommate, John, his daughter Rosie, and our land lady Mrs. Hudson. John was in the service as an army doctor and he has PTSD. I have recently been diagnosed with C-PTSD. We need a dog that can wake him up from nightmares and a dog that can help me with panic attacks, even though I don’t know what Ella is talking about, getting back on task, and isolation. Most importantly it must get along with Rosie and Mrs. Hudson," replied Sherlock.

Solomon nodded, "okay what's you living situation? Also do you have a letter of approval, because as much as I am willing to just let you have one of ours, I do have to tell my boss who is getting a dog and why."

John handed Solomon the letter from Ella. "An apartment, we live on the second floor but the apartment itself is 2 floors as well," said John.

Solomon opened the letter and read it. "Hmm okay every thing should be order with this letter, and I can call Dr. Thompson for final confirmation latter. Is there a size consideration?" Asked Solomon.

"Well we don't have much space for a spectacularly large dog, but otherwise we want a dog that can take public transit and taxis fine, but not too small." Said Sherlock.

Solomon nodded, "okay is allergies a factor?"

John looked at Sherlock who shook his head "no" and they both looked at Mrs Hudson who shrugged. "No but my father is allergic but he rarely comes by," said Sherlock.

Solomon nodded, "okay I mean all of our dogs are well trained for every kind of environment. So I can take you out back and you can meet the dogs that are currently available. If none of them suit your needs we can always help you find a shelter dog and train one up for you." 

John cleared his threat, "we aren't bumping anyone down a list by getting one of the available dogs?" 

Solomon shook his head, "no most of these guys are dogs that haven't gotten along with any of our current clients, I am sure we will eventually find homes for all of them, but sometimes we will drive them out to other regions to see if any of them get along with folks out there."

John breath a relieved sigh. 

Solomon, shrugged his shoulders, "well you said you wanted one that can help in cases as well? I mean currently we have a beagle/corgi mix, a collier/lurched mix, and a mastiff/Labrador mix. They are all rather sweet dogs with good work temperament but lately we have been getting a lot of folks who need smaller dogs, plus the beagle/corgi mix was returned when the owner kept finding food missing because the pup kept opening the fridge and eating the food. So basically he needs more training to overcome whatever started that behavior." Solomon whistled, Golem got up and pulled him to the door. Sherlock got up to open the door, but golem gave him a look, that made Sherlock leave the door to be Golem's responsibility. 

Rosie stared at the dog wide eyed and tried to pet him, Sherlock stopped her, "hey Rosie dear, Golem is working, he is working when he has his vest and harness on, so you can't play with him at the moment unless Solomon says it is okay. The same will go for whatever dog we choose, but don't worry that's why we brought you along, we are going to pick a dog that will work for all of us. Do you understand Rosie?" 

Rosie nodded, "Yes Sherlock, Daddy why?" 

John turned to Rosie. "Okay Rosie, well I have nightmares and my reactions to being woken up from them can be quite scary, luckily you always slept through them, but Sherlock has tried to wake me and my reaction to being woken up scared him and I don't want to scare him anymore. Sherlock needs it too because sometimes he gets too focused on something and can forget about other things or sometimes he pauses, the dog is going to help him move on. That way you both can go out more when it's Sherlock's day to pick you up from daycare."

Rosie tilted her head, “Why?”

“Why what?” asked John.

“Why you stay in Sherlock’s room?

John replied, "Well you have gotten old enough for your own room. Also I like staying with Sherlock and I think Sherlock likes me staying with him." 

Rosie laughed, "you've like staying in Sherlock’s room, sound happy.” 

Mrs. Hudson and Solomon laughed. 

John and Sherlock felt a bit embarrassed.

"Hey Rosie, do you want to pet Golem?" Said Solomon, Rosie nodded her head enthusiastically and started to pet Golem as they walked towards the kennels. 

"Why is he so big?" asks Rosie.

Solomon nodded, “Mastiffs are big dogs and Golem was originally my balance dog, and I am really, really tall man, so I needed a really, really tall dog, but as time went on my condition got worse, so I needed the wheelchair. And with that I trained Golem further to help me with navigating the world with a wheelchair."

Rosie nodded in understanding.

Mrs Hudson, nodded and turned to Sherlock and John, "I'm so happy for you both, I always knew it would happen eventually. Well if you ever need someone to babysit when you need some alone time, I want you to know I am available. And i think this will be good for both of you. Also Rosie needs two parents in her life, but then again she always had the two of you hasn't she." 

Sherlock smiled as they walked down the hall. 

John smiled at him and huffed, "well looks like we are getting a dog." They entered the kennel area.

Rosie was surrounded by three dogs and laughing, "daddy! Sherlock! I like them all." 

John sighed, "well we cannot have them all." 

Solomon laughed, "that isn't going to stop them from trying. So how tall is your bed? Mainly because the dog is going to need to get up on it to wake you up." John and Sherlock gestured a similar height. Solomon nodded, "okay Bosch, the beagi, would need a stool to get that height, so don't let that be a deterrent for you." "Toby" he gestured at the lurcher/ Collier mix. "And Bopper" he gestured at the mastador, "those two should clear it no problem." He pulled out a clicker and clicked it four times. The three dogs all walked away from Rosie and stood in a straight line. "Hey John can you lie down one the table? Just going to check if their method of waking up folks is compatible with you." John got up on the table and lied down. Solomon rolled up to John, "here's Bosco!" Solomon whistled and pressed the clicker once. Bosco leaped up on the table and jumped on top of John while licking his face. 

John had the breath knocked out of him, "I am fine with that, but I might not be too okay with the jumping on my chest." Bosco rested on his stomach. 

Solomon nodded, "Perfectly reasonable." Solomon pressed a buzzer, "no." Bosco leapt off the table. Solomon whistled once and clicked the clicker twice. Bosco leaped onto the table and padded up to John and licked his face while pawing at him. 

John laughed, "okay much better."

Solomon smiled, "okay here comes Toby!" He whistled twice and pressed the clicker. Toby placed his two front paws on the table and pawed at John's chest while licking his cheek. 

John nodded, "I think that was pretty good, not much of a shock."

Solomon smiled, "okay that's great, now let's try Bopper." He whistled three times and pressed the clicker. Bopper ran up to the table and put his front paws and full weight on John's shoulder.

John yelped, "not good!" Bopper got off John immediately. He sat up and rubbed his shoulder. 

Solomon pressed a buzzer, "no." Bopper looked at John with a look that one could say was sorry, but personifying animal's reactions can be troublesome. "Sorry about that, is there any other injuries I need to be made aware of before continuing." 

John shook his head, "no, I occasionally limp but that hasn't happened in a long time." 

Sherlock smirked.

Mrs. Hudson laughed.

Rosie looked confused.

Solomon nodded, "would it be okay if Bopper gave it another try?"

John shrugged, "that's would fine." And he lied back down on the table.

Solomon, whistled three times and pressed the clicker twice. Bopper padded up to John, and placed a paw on his chest and gently shook him while licking his face.

"Yup, that is much better," said John.

Solomon smiled, "okay is there any that is a definite no?"

"Not really all of them seemed pretty good, I like them all," replied John.

Solomon laughed, "yeah that tends to happen. Okay so is there a particular activity level you want out of them?"

John shrugged, "i guess one that can thrive with at least two walks a day and occasionally been out the whole day. Probably one that likes to play especially because we have Rosie."

Sherlock, "I don't want it too loud if that is possible."

Solomon nodded, "okay, I think all of them are fine with that, but Bosco might need a bit more play time because he can get easily bored and that's when he goes into the food, but when he is on the clock he is a good dog. Maybe we can have Sherlock be the deciding factor? Shall we go out for a walk?" Bosco, Toby, and Bopper all looked at Solomon enthusiastically. Solomon rolled towards a closet, that Golem opened for him. Solomon whistled and pointed at a shelf, Golem reached up and pulled down a box. He clicked the clicker four times, and Bosco, Toby, and Bopper lined up. Solomon pulled out some blue vests that said "service dog" on it and placed one on each. He fitted each dog with a vest and a lead and handed all the leads to Sherlock.

Sherlock had a ridiculously huge smile on his face. 

Solomon grabbed onto Golem's harness and pressed the clicker, "door." Golem started pulling Solomon to the front entrance. They exited the kennel to a fairly busy street. "There is a park one block up the hill, otherwise there is a Tesco down the hill two blocks. Which one do you think is more indicative of your ADLs... wait activities of daily living?"

John, Sherlock, and Rosie all said in unison, "park." 

Mrs. Hudson laughed, because she knew that a few years back, Sherlock and John got in trouble at two different Tesco's for breaking self check out kiosks. And Mrs. Hudson had to buy milk for Rosie because neither of them was welcome in the markets until they paid for the damages. Sherlock was not too pleased when it went viral on Facebook. They had been ordering groceries online ever since. But Mrs. Hudson didn't mind because going out for groceries was her special time with Rosie. 

Solomon shrugged, "okay to the park." He pressed the clicker and said "park" and Golem started pulling him up the hill. And with that all the other dogs started following him.

Sherlock was absolutely gleeful to be having so many dogs. He knew he probably should pick one. He handed the two of the leashes to John, and proceeded to walk with Bosco, for the walk up the block. Bosco's ear movements amused Sherlock because it was all the flop of Beagle ears trying to sweep the ground to increase the scent but was also twitching and moving much like a corgi trying to hear everything. He thought that it would be pretty good for when he had to track someone or something down but at the same time he was compact enough to take places with little effort. The got to the park. Sherlock nodded and turned to John, "I like Bosco, I think he will be good at sniffing things out while also staying alert. But I am going to still try the others."

John nodded, and traded leashes with Sherlock, "let's try Bopper."

Sherlock nodded and took on the Mastador, he felt it really pulling him and he thought that maybe he would take a bit of work, he looked around the park. There was a pond and it was filled with ducks. Bopper looked like he was scanning his surroundings, Sherlock thought that he would make a great watchdog and would probably be very loyal, he liked that about Bopper, it was very easy to feel safe with Bopper. He looked around and noticed Solomon and Golem were just resting by a bench. And Rosie and Mrs. Hudson were looking at the flowers. Sherlock smiled, for once he was just seeing what was in front of him, he didn't feel like he had to look at every possible detail just in case something went wrong. "I like Bopper as well, I feel like he can take on a lot of the background noise, like I can really focus on important details and not get consumed by the background noise. But there is one more dog, this is going to be a hard decision." 

John nodded and handed over Toby's leash. "Here you go Sherlock."

Sherlock nodded and looked at the collie-lurcher mix, Toby looked to be rather fast. Sherlock thought Toby was constantly scanning the path a head of them. He liked that because again he just liked being able to let the dog make the decision on some sounds. It was working like a filter where he didn't have to process too much info that way. He turned to John, "I like this one too, he seems focused but also aware of his surroundings. I can't decide on one."

John huffed, "well you can't take them all." 

Sherlock nodded, "I know I can't, but it is hard to choose. I don't want to make the wrong choice." His phone rang, it was Mycroft, which was confusing for that time of day but it must've been important if it was such an odd hour. "You cried to mummy, Sherlock," hissed Mycroft. 

Sherlock forced a laugh, "Brother My, you are going to have to be more specific." John laughed an awkward forced laugh.

Mycroft whispered "you didn't like that I told you no on reducing the surveillance, so you went to mummy. For that I might as well come up with new ways to keep track of you."

"Mycroft, I didn't, I, uh, i uh, I am trying to handle the things I can on my own. Why are you asking?" Asked Sherlock, visibly shaken, he dropped his phone and the leash. He is frozen mid step, he tries to fight it but the hallways start building themselves around his mind. In his mind he is trying to out run the walls but they just keep coming. He feels the earthmoving beneath him, and he is barely keeping up. Suddenly his mind goes blanks. 

Toby looks at Sherlock and senses something is off, Toby barks and paws at Sherlock. Toby tries licking Sherlock's hand, not much of a response. Toby goes off and finds John and barks at him and starts running in circles around John, herding him to Sherlock. John runs up to Sherlock with the other two dogs. 

John looked at Sherlock, and noticed him staring into space, his lips smacking, and fingers twitching. He mentally kicks himself, absence seizures. He decides to not snap Sherlock out of the seizure and presses the start button on his watch. 

Toby runs off and finds Mrs. Hudson who is holding onto Rosie, Toby starts running in circles around Mrs. Hudson also guiding her towards Sherlock. Toby leaps up and paws at Sherlock's chest he starts licking at Sherlock's hand again, occasionally barking.

Sherlock snaps back and sees everyone looking at him. John stops the stop watch. 20 seconds, John sighed, that was a long one.

Mrs. Hudson and Rosie finds themselves in front of Sherlock. "Sherlock, dear, are you okay?" Asked Mrs. Hudson. 

Sherlock smiled, "hello Mrs. Hudson and Rosie, where did you come from?" He accepts a hug from Rosie and picks her up. Toby paws at Sherlock, both him and Rosie pets Toby. 

Mrs. Hudson looked at Sherlock with concern, "Sherlock, are you okay?"

Sherlock looked at her, "yes Mrs. Hudson, I am okay, why does everyone always ask me that question?"

Mrs. Hudson looked at him, "sometimes you make us worry."

Sherlock sighed.

John was tangled up with Bosco and Bopper. He turns around and notices Sherlock on the bench and his phone on the floor. He deduced that Sherlock had another one of his moments of uncontrolled visit to his mind palace again. He picked up the phone he caught a bit and pieces of Mycroft threatening Sherlock with more surveillance and even mentioning that he had video of him with his ex-girlfriends. John shuddered at the thought. "Ha, looks like we know which one we are taking home," said John. He picked the phone off the ground and said "Hey Mycroft, it's me John, sounds like you are busy, mind if we continuing this call some other time. But thanks for calling Sherlock almost wanted to take all the dogs, but during the call one of them really rose to the occasion. Feel free to come by for tea later, I have some words for you."

Sherlock looked at John with a combination of concern and panic.

John heard Sherlock's mother. He mouthed "your mum" to Sherlock. Violet asked to join them for Tea. John replied, "not a problem at all, we should be back home by 3:30, but that's around Rosie's nap time, so if you want to be around while Rosie is awake and playful, I'd suggest swinging by around 5." He smacked his head, and mouthed to Sherlock, "I'm sorry." Violet talked a bit more to John. "Will do, Mrs. Holmes, see you later. Tell Mycroft we hope he still comes by, because some conversations are better had in person," responded John and he hung up the phone. He rushed over to Sherlock, "I'm sorry, I should've asked first." 

Sherlock shrugged, "it is what it is."

"It is what it is," repeated John. "If it makes you feel better, your mother was giving Mycroft one hell of a scolding."

Sherlock smiled, "well I guess this is going to be an interesting tea time. Do you think she is going to scold Mycroft again?"

John laughed, "I think she won't be the only one."

Rosie looked at the two of them, "cake?" Which for any young child seems like a reasonable response to having to deal with a complicated tea time.

Sherlock smiled, "yes Rosie, let's get a cake."

Solomon rolled up to john and Sherlock, "I take it you figured out which one you want."

Sherlock turned to John, "Toby seems like he'll work best right?" 

John nodded, "yes Toby."

Solomon, "okay but we might have to do more training on her, that barking shouldn't be happening unless they are off work, or if they have to warn others that their owner is wondering off or having a seizure. So maybe she won't be ready to take home just yet but you are more than welcome to tag along for her further training outside of the training you are going to have to do with her.”

"Toby is a girl?" Asked Sherlock. 

Solomon replied, "yeah initially we named her Tabitha, and called her Tabby, but she didn't respond to that, one of the volunteers accidentally called her Toby. And that was what worked, so it stuck."

John and Sherlock shrugged. "Well she's still the dog we want, also Toby’s barking might be with in what she was trained to do,” said John.

Solomon smiled, “Okay, well then that’s good to know. Let’s get back to the kennel. So I can start getting the paperwork started. Do you want to take her home tonight? I mean as it goes we are going to still do at least two month of training, mainly to make sure things are going to work out. This is usually a time consuming process and some of the other programs even have you live with them for a bit before you and your dog go out to where you actually live. We prefer that the dogs live with you in your environment, and we train you where you live your life. So would you rather we come over to you or the other way around. You will still need to pass a test eventually after you finish training.”

"Yes it would be a lot more helpful to learn in our neighborhood, rather than across the city," said Sherlock.

Solomon nodded in acknowledgement, "since you mentioned stairs, I am going to have to send one of my interns out for the training since, well" he gestured at his chair. "I know Kayla is on that side of town, so she would be the most convenient. I can send her, your address as soon as you settle on a meeting time. It is getting close to feeding time, so we should head back."   
He handed Sherlock a keychain, "so basically the orange one is the clicker, you use this to reinforce good behavior there are some commands that you can say after the click but ultimately use the click only for good behavior. The red one is the buzzer, that is for bad behavior, I tend to use whistle as a way of catching their attention, but over time you'll find what works." 

"That makes sense, operant conditioning, right?" Said Sherlock.

"Exactly," replied Solomon. He whistled four times, and all the dogs lined up. He bends down and removes the work vests off bosco and bopper. "Hey Sherlock, you can walk Toby back. Rosie and Mrs. Hudson , can you walk Bosco? he should be manageable for you both. John, can you take care of Bopper? Okay, looks like we are all set." He presses the clicker, "home." Golem lines up next to Solomon, and he grabs Golem's harness. They all start walking back down the street. Sometimes Solomon would spread up but golem would slow him down enough to stay with the flow of foot traffic. They reached the door of the kennel, and entered. "Okay let's get the papers started. I mean you got the vest, and the lead. And I'll give you all of Toby's toys and her bed. And you'll get a bag of dog food as well that way you know what to feed her. Otherwise, she is all up to date with shots, she has been spayed and chipped. And there isn't any fee for her dog license since she is a service animal. If you come to our clinic, the vet fees are waved for the first 5 years, but otherwise you can always pick your own clinic, I mean I am sure there is a vet out there who owes you a favor." 

Sherlock laughed, "actually there is a few vet clinics who owe me favors, I caught a person who was running anti-freeze through the water fountains of dog parks and would stick rat poison in cheese and throw it all over the park. And the man was actually quite wealthy, so he had to pay for the damages for all the sick pets. He said he did it because he was tired of stepping in dog shit. One of the clinics who saw the worst of it, said that i was welcome to bring a pet in anytime, which works out when I need to help one of my informants from my homeless network. Sometimes vet care is more appreciated than other goods."

Solomon looked disgusted at the idea that someone would poison animals over something so petty.

John raised an eyebrow, "Sherlock do you ever get paid money for your detective work?"

Sherlock smiled, "sometimes but I do have a trust fund that helps patch things up quite nicely, ultimately I have found the barter system has worked for me and ultimately it opens up a route for people who can't afford an investigator a chance. But really the barter system has been good to me." He gestured at Mrs Hudson.

John huffed, "of course you would have a trust fund, posh boy."

Solomon laughed, "well mr. Trust Fund, we always appreciate donations here. It takes about £11,000 to train one of these guys."

Sherlock nodded, "do you take card?" 

Solomon surprised, "yes we can." He pulled a card reader and attached it to his phone. 

Sherlock swiped his card and punched in a number and smiled.

Solomon looked at his phone, "um Sherlock are you sure you wanted to add that zero?"

Sherlock nodded. 

Solomon smiled, "well I can assure you that you are going to be helping a lot of folks with this donation." 

John raised his eyebrows at Sherlock, curious of just how much Sherlock gave.

Solomon went to his office to get the paperwork, he passed a young woman exiting the office as he went on, "oh hey Kayla, Sherlock is going to be taking home Toby, can you prepare Toby's stuff so that she can go home with them today. Also you are the closest volunteer to his flat, you think you are ready to do your first solo on site training?" 

"Yes, I think I am more than ready for that, Solomon," said Kayla. she was a young Black woman with an American accent, probably west coast, wearing a purple hoodie that said RVC on it. She waived hello at Sherlock and Toby. "Aww Toby, buddy, you going to your new home today? So you must be Sherlock, the detective right? Solomon loves talking about the day you saved Golem. And that must make you John, I really love your blog. Oh Toby, I bet you are about to start a very exciting life." Toby enthusiastically nodded her head. Kayla smiled, "oh and look did Bosco and Bopper also give it a try, it's okay soon we are going to find you the perfect person to help. Can I take them to the back?" 

John and Mrs. Hudson handed over the leads to Kayla, and she walked all of the dogs to the back kennel. 

She left Toby with Sherlock, Toby rested at his feet. Sherlock smiled.

John turned to Sherlock "so how much money did you give?"

"£11,000" replied Sherlock, "they deserve it. Also think of it as a person getting a new chance at life.

John mildly gasped, "how do you have that much to just randomly give away?"

Sherlock chuckled, "no it was coming from Mycroft's trust fund, he certainly earns enough money not to care, but I also pick the kind of stuff that makes you feel bad for repealing the charges in the moments he does care." He turned to Rosie and looked her in the eye. "Rosie, don't ever charge to cards that don't belong to you and don't spend other people's money without their permission, okay?"

Rosie nodded in acknowledgment, "why?"

Sherlock looked slightly flustered, “because it is considered stealing when you spend other people’s money with out their permission but sometimes it’s okay for the greater good?"

"Robin hood?" Asked Rosie.

Sherlock laughed.

John laughed, "well Sherlock, probably not the best behavior to show, Rosie."

Sherlock smirked, "indeed very not good behavior, but sometimes you just have to be a bit petty."

Solomon returned with Golem, and handed Sherlock two envelopes, "one is the paperwork for Toby, and the other is a receipt for proof of donation for Mycroft." 

John and Sherlock laughed.

Solomon smirked, "I am just going to assume whoever Mycroft is, is a family member who wants to help, we'll even award him a placard if you want to really seal the deal."

Sherlock smiled.

John raised his eyebrows at Solomon.

Solomon waived his hand in the air, "charitable donations are a blood sport, sometimes you got to fight dirty and appeal to some part of a person that makes them want to give be it for genuine hopes to help or by stroking their ego or offering a tax deduction. Or a combo of all of the above."

Kayla came back with a box, "okay Sherlock, we got Toby's bed, her toys, and a bag of dog food. She already has her vest, collar, and lead. So if anything you are all set." She handed the box to John, and pulled out a business card and handed it to Sherlock. "Here's my card, so you can contact me directly for scheduling training sessions. I prefer text message."

Sherlock nodded, "I also prefer text message."

Kayla nodded, "great, my best times are from 9am-noon and 2pm-5pm, I got class at the Royal Veterinary College."

Sherlock nodded, "okay so about 20 minutes away from the flat."

Kayla nodded, "okay that's great. Shall we start tomorrow? Do you want the morning or afternoon?

"Yes tomorrow morning will work out, but can we alternate between times to ensure that we capture different parts of the day," said Sherlock.

"Of course, that would be ideal," replied Kayla.

Solomon nodded, "okay I think we are off to a good start, thanks for coming Sherlock and John, I hope this works out for you two."

"Thanks," said John, offering his hand for a handshake.

Solomon shook John's hand, "no problem, it's what we are here for. Have as good of a day as you possibly can, bye! 

Sherlock, John, Rosie, and Mrs, Hudson all waved good bye and exited the animal center.

Sherlock stood at the curb and raised his hand, a taxi immediately stopped in front of them. Rosie and Mrs Hudson hopped in, John shimmied in. sherlock was about to get in. 

The cabby turned around and said, "sorry sir but no dogs."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah also turns out that the UK doesn't allow service dogs for PTSD, but it is currently under evaluation. Welp... I guess, I think I added some adjustments that allows for the Toby to still stay with 221B.


	5. Files and Faxes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mycroft makes a call, to humor his parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay again I don't know about NHS too well, but here in the US, unfortunately your medical record will always exists, so I am just working off that knowledge.

Chapter 5

As Mycroft ate his lunch, he looked at the file he received about Aithne Hunter, he didn't really like the idea about her meeting Eurus. Sure she looked great on paper as she is now. But her NHS mental health record was troubling. Does someone really outgrow conduct disorder. And she had a history of setting fires, wetting the bed, and injuring her siblings, like that was two out of the homicidal triad, wasn't it. Also hurting humans is probably above killing animals, he sighed. The bed wetting was related to CIPA, but you couldn't blame the fires and beating her siblings for that. For Christ sake she set fire to her twin sister... who is now her twin brother and judging from their phone records and social media pages, they seem to get along great, like better than any set of siblings should. And she also seemed to have a good relationship with her two oldest brother and younger sibling too. Most of that improvement seemed to go into the fact that they all seemed to have moved as a group to San Francisco. Their father worked in the JPL at Cal Tech, and he a really high security clearance because of it, the kids were are on good terms with him. None of the siblings seemed to have a good relationship with the mother who teaches at Oxford. Hmm... looks like Aithne spent time in the same children's ward as Eurus, just before the fire that shut it down. Maybe they spent time together there, maybe they even worked the fire together. He didn't like the idea that someone one could actually be scheming with Eurus this whole time.

But there was no denying she did set fire to her brother as a child (the investigation shows that she apparently threw a molotov cocktail at her brother while he was riding his mountain bike, the safety gear he was wearing bore most of the trauma, but he still had some scarring. the incident was enough for the Hunters to still place their daughter into a psych hospital.), and it was just too close to the time, Eurus drowned Victor and hurt Sherlock, what if they had some kind of shared delusion. The fact that Aithne and Eurus stayed in the same hospital ward, did indeed trouble him. It seemed that after the fire at the hospital, the Hunters took full custody of their daughter, her mother even gave up her career temporarily to try out some methods used on children with detachment disorder. Which was not something Aithne seemed to like according to doctor’s notes, but she apparently got to a level of functioning that allowed for her to go to a mainstream school.

She also has multiple hits on her record of attacking people perpetrating violence on her classmates, he almost feels like she was just finding a socially acceptable way of enacting violence, there was just too many of those hits to be considered just being in the right place at the right time. He laughed that one of the attacks involved putting caused permanent damage to a flasher because he flashed her and her clubmates when they were 11, she used a field hockey stick, medical records showed a remarkable amount of damage that a small child probably could rarely do. Another one involved her at 12, sending a male classmate who was taking up-skirt photos of her peers to the hospital with a broken jaw because she pulled the film roll out and made him eat the film and when he refused she stomped his face in. At 13, she broke the fingers of a boy who wouldn't stop touching girls at her Sunday school class. At 14, she sent a man to the hospital in a coma, because he groped a classmate at a bus stop, she pushed him into the road where he hit his head. At 15, she killed a man who was in the middle of trying to kidnap an 8 year old girl, she saw this on a train platform and while other people ignored the scene. She pulled the girl away from the man and kicked him into the path of an oncoming train. Further investigation into her claims that the man was trying to kidnap the child eventually lead to breaking a human trafficking ring. That was her last run in with the police, and the psychiatrists she saw were all convinced that she expressed genuine remorse for all off her actions. Mycroft looked at all the CCTV archives of the incidents, she did look like someone regretting her actions each and every time. So ultimately, the conduct disorder never got rediagnosed as Antisocial Personality Disorder. 

She was smart obviously, she entered Cambridge at 16, graduated with honors, went on to a challenging doctoral program at Stanford and ultimately ended up becoming an associate professor for an university that was equally competitive. Otherwise she seemed to be well liked by her colleagues and her students liked her because she seemed to be genuinely interested in teaching people, which is considered rare for tenure tracked professors. She also volunteers in a free clinic dedicated to multi-diagnosed LGBTQ people. But Eurus was smart too, and she was beyond what anyone has ever seen. He is sure that if given the chance Eurus would be very able to cultivate a likable persona, because isn't that what people with Antisocial Personality Disorder do. What if this was just some long con. He wouldn't be surprised if this was some long game for Eurus. 

He looked at the the info booklet for the Maureen Russo House, which was the the facility Aithne was head of. It had a 98% success rate of keeping forensic patients and conserved patients from relapse, the graduates of her program ultimately was able to go back to society to live some kind of life, many of them seemed to have gone on to living in supportive housing or living with friends or family. It looked like the other 2% either committed suicide, got killed by cops, or readmitted to an institution. It certainly looked like a nice house, he laughed when he saw the note "this is not an institution , this is a program where folks have the freedom to have their own schedules and the autonomy to make decisions, the best to their capabilities." How would anyone stop chaos if there was not set schedules? He really didn't like the place. He certainly didn't like that it was in a city with not nearly as much CCTV as he was used to working with. What good is microphones when all it does is give cops the general idea to where gun fire was? He also didn't have much security access privileges for the US as one would think, he wouldn't be able to keep much track of her there. He did not like the idea. 

Mycroft laughed, he thought about how Eurus would be able to live after the program. He thought no supportive housing in all of the U.K. would be able to handle her. But then he thought about what if Eurus lived with the parents and who would she live with when they passed on. He certainly didn't want her, but he wondered if Sherlock would. Sherlock was always visiting her and he seemed to be the only one to reach her for a while. He laughed as he imagined John and Sherlock with that child trying to live with Eurus. Oh g-d the violins alone would be insufferable. Or friends, she didn't have friends, the Holmes children don't make friends. John was just some fluke for Sherlock. He laughed further at the idea of Eurus just using her trust fund and living on her own, he didn't like that idea either, that was much too dangerous an option. 

He really didn't like the idea. He looked at her approach to care and scoffed, "trauma informed care with emphasis on harm reduction." He thought that just meant she was going to be an especially easy target for Eurus to turn. And the thought of having her in a facility full of people who could be just as easy to turn, really didn't feel right. He really didn't like going to deal with a program in a city where he didn't exactly have great access to surveillance. Also he just didn't like the idea of harm reduction, he didn't like it mainly because sure Sherlock took all the precautions to minimize the personal damage the drugs would do to him, but he felt that Sherlock was a little too confident in what her thought he could manage. He never liked showing the list to medical providers when Sherlock needed further care than just a couple shots of Narcan. He really didn't like that Sherlock was the kind of user who was self aware enough to administer Narcan on himself. So he at times didn't even call for help when he needed it. Also there wasn't any Narcan for stimulants, so there wasn't even an easy to administer aid when he was ODing on his drug of choice. 

He sighed, he knew his parents were for once making an effort but he wasn't sure if this was going to be best choice. He sighed, and read farther into Dr. hunter's file. She was currently a faculty member at UCSF. According to her school records, she wanted to be psychiatrist, but couldn't complete her med rotations due to tactile difficulties caused by CIPA, she settled on still pursuing her doctorate in psychology and neurological biochem. He was curious as to why she moved to the US, but her visa records wasn't available on such short notice. 

He looked at the world clock on his wall, it was 4 am in San Francisco. He figured this was a call worth waking up for. He picked up the phone and called Dr. Hunter. 

The phone rang twice, "mum if this is you with a new number, you know I am just going to block it like all the others. And really how the fuck did you get this number..." barked out Aithne in a fast pressured voice.

Mycroft interrupted, "Dr. Hunter, my name is Mycroft Holmes, I have a special project for you."

Dr. Hunter slowed down, "Mycroft Holmes, you're calling from London? Okay what kind of project?"

Mycroft replied, "would you be interested in working with a 35 year old woman who has been institutionalize since she was 5."

"Holy fuck, what kinda dark family secret lies there? I mean that long of a stay and the fact that you managed to get this number which just smacks of you having some connections that just hints of money or power or both. I mean I am going to have to get all case notes and do an in person interview before I give you an answer. But the house could always use more residents who pay fully out of pocket, maybe even a few trustees," Dr. Hunter laughed. "Also what's her name, I mean if you got this number than you know I was in an institution myself as a kid for almost a year, but a fire happened," she sighed. "I may have been in a place with her," asked Dr. Hunter.

Mycroft wrinkled his nose at her language usage, she didn't exactly sound smart or even polite. "Her name is Eurus Holmes."

"Crap, really? I mean I though she was dead after the fire. I rather liked her. I mean I'll give it a test run, but if I can't establish boundaries with her I may have to say no, but I really want to give it an effort because I rarely ever liked people at that age. And in terms of people, she was one of my favorites when I was a kid. That liking people shit was hard as a kid. Dad was always trying to convince her parents to organize some play dates when we were kids, I really thought we could've been friends, but her parents would always dodge the question. My dad was convinced that she died in the fire, and after a while I believed him too.”

Mycroft was amused to see someone who actually wanted to be friends with Eurus.

"Wait Mycroft? Aren't you the big brother? Your ass always looked like a stressed out middle aged man, and you were barely a teen. I mean you looked so funny as an adult, you didn't even look like a kid, I mean now I know that you were just as much of a kid as Eurus and I. But you were always a funny looking adult. I mean especially when you were always jumping in when blaze's roommate was relapsing, then you were all straight up disappointed parent. I mean I guess that's what happens when parents put too much responsibility on the oldest," said Dr. Hunter in a rather fast voice. "Actually how is Sherlock? Blaze still kind of hates his guts but at the same time he realizes that Sherlock ruining the computer and back up drives that held his dissertation did him a bit of a service because the advisors where initially worried that his written form wouldn't pass the panel too well. But his verbal skills and drawn out diagrams really won them over." 

Mycroft smiled at Dr. Hunter's observation, this person may be a bit interesting to bring in, Eurus was actually due for another gift. "Oh Sherlock is fine, really growing in many new and surprising ways." He gritted his teeth a little.

"I would really like to at least see her, even if it turns out that I cannot treat her, it would mean a lot to me if it can happen," Dr. Hunter paused, "I really mean it, I mean it is very lonely in those places and I mean she doesn't have to be alone. Okay so I am sure if you found this number you found my e-mail and fax. So either send it to my work email using a HIPPA compliment encryption or fax it but remember to use cover pages, but I am the only one who has access to that fax machine but cover sheets are a must. Well I have to go to work in 4 hours and I am still hoping to force a 26 minute nap. In that time period. But please don't think that I don't care about this case, I mean I really do care. I hope you can see that," She hung up the phone.

Mycroft sighed, "caring is not an advantage." He feels like this is just asking for trouble, Dr. Hunter seemed to be a little too happy to work with Eurus almost sentimental. And sentiment was dangerous especially when it involves someone with the capabilities of Eurus.

His phone pings, he sees that he has received a text alert from his money management. Apparently he made £11,000 donations to People Animal Wellness Services. He pulled up the website they trained service animals using a wider range of dog breeds so as to be able to make service dogs to fit the needs of individuals. He sighed, it wasn't too big of a deal for him, and he hopes that it will be helpful, but usually donations that big have ceremonies and he didn't want any of that.


	6. Tips, tykes, and tills.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Sherlock go to the market.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, totally not familiar with the service dog training of the UK, but I mean I got friends who did it here in the US. Also not sure how Tesco's are laid out but when I went to Spain last year I saw that they had those stupid turnstiles to get into every grocery market there, so I am kinda assuming that is a european thing. *shrugs shoulders, I got to do something to knock me out... it's 2 am where I am.

Chapter 6  
Sherlock gestured at the Toby's vest, "she's a service dog."

"Okay why do you have the dog?" Asked the cabby.

Sherlock snipped back, "you are not allowed to ask that question by law, and I already got your medallion number, so if you don't want to be reported for violating the law, I suggest you just get us to 221 Baker Street, and ask no further questions."

John nodded in agreement with Sherlock.

The cabby huffed, "fine get in."

Sherlock and Toby got into the car. Toby curled up at the floor of the cab. The ride felt a bit long given the mid-day traffic. They pulled up in front of 221 B Baker Street. 

"That'll be £20," said the Cabby.

Sherlock handed the money to him with an okay tip.

Sherlock opened the door, and Toby got up and gently padded out. And the rest of them followed. Sherlock noticed his phone which was full of texts messages from Kayla.

A flash of purple comes running out of the Speedy's, it's Kayla, "hey Sherlock, Solomon just realized as soon as you left, that we actually need to train you to get to you to pass the test. I mean yeah we get that PTSD dogs are really helpful but the current governing bodies don't cover them. There are pilot programs for it, and we are working on it. Ugh I mean where I am from it was acceptable, to just let you go and we come and train you. But, blah, blah, blah we don't want you getting in trouble. So yeah we need to remember not to assume that you are going to be all good, especially since you don't have an ID booklet. Yeah right, before I forget," She pulls out a patch that says "in training" and she pats it onto the Toby's vest. "Well at least it was good to see that you managed a cab just fine. Did the cabby give you any trouble? Was Toby able to maneuver the taxi even with all of you in there?

Sherlock nodded, "yes at first, but I reminded them that banning a service animal is illegal, and that I already had his cab number. And Toby was perfectly able to fit in and nobody noticed her."

Kayla nodded, "that's indeed correct on the cab front. And it is good to see that you and Toby work out pretty intuitively, I mean our model is a bit unusual, but ultimately we aim to train all the standards to a well trained service dog, but we specialize further when they get picked. A lot of times we get people coming in for Assistance dogs, but we get a lot of people coming in for Autism or epilepsy dogs, so we got a lot of that training as well. The one we do try to prioritize is folks with multiple diagnoses, because well we can have a lot leeway to pick out what works for people. We are trying to focus on mixes because well unless we can really trust the breeder, things happen. I mean as far as it goes we aim to have as fairly fast integration. Is it okay if I just shadow you for a little bit?" 

Sherlock nodded.

John shrugged, "yeah that's fine, but we'll have guests at 5. And we need to go to the shops real quick, it is a rather last minute thing." 

Kayla nodded, "not a problem at all, I'm fine leaving as soon as you need me too."

"Oh are you having a client, Sherlock?" Asked Mrs. Hudson.

"No his parents and brother are coming over for tea," replied John. 

Sherlock's mind decided to pause, he gritted his teeth, and nervously drummed his fingers. Toby barked and pawed at Sherlock's hand. Sherlock snapped back into the moment.

Kayla looked at Toby, wondering why she barked.

Mrs. Hudson scowled at the mention of Mycroft. "Oh are you making an announcement?"  
She gave them a sly smile, "I hope I am in the wedding party."

John groaned, "Mrs. Hudson, we are not at the moment planing on getting married."

Mrs. Hudson gave them a slight pout. "You both would tell me if it was to happen right? You aren't just going to elope, right?"

"Of course, Mrs. Hudson you would absolutely be one of the first people to know. If it wasn't for your apartment, we wouldn't have met," replied Sherlock, slightly dazed and wondering how they got to this conversation.

"I was considering letting you live here for free at first, but look what charging you rent got you," said Mrs Hudson. She smiled at John.

"Damn it," said Sherlock.

"Wait if you didn't need to charge us rent? What where you doing with the money?" Asked John. Almost afraid to hear the answer.

Mrs. Hudson replied, "oh you know I do enjoy my scratch cards and herbal soothers."

John sighed, "please don't tell me you spent our monthly rent on Scratch Cards and marijuana."

"Okay John I won't tell you then," replied Mrs Hudson.

John looked at Mrs. Hudson with wide eyes.

"Oh don't you worry a some of it went to petrol and traffic tickets for the Ashton Martin too," said Mrs. Hudson with a smile.

Rosie looked at the whole interaction with confusion.

Kayla laughed, "aww I can already tell y'all a hella fun bunch, this is going to be a great couple of weeks." She turned to Mrs. Hudson, "I like you, you remind me of my mom, she always be trying to get my big brother and his husband to admit they were a couple, but like they were like best friends since childhood, and you know toxic masculinity is a thing, so like they were 30 by they time they got cuffed. And they kept saying they weren't like that, but mom kept finding them doing couple stuff like all the time. She one time got out her camera phone and took pictures of them napping because they feel asleep cuddling. Like half their wedding slide show was pics taken by our mom. She also has a soft spot for lotto scratchers, like the car is always filled with that scratcher dust." She smiled to herself, "ugh sorry for the overshare."

Mrs. Hudson smiled at Kayla, "oh believe me Kayla I may not have pictures, but I do have stories. They are going to have to fear me approaching the mic." 

John and Sherlock looked at Mrs. Hudson in mild terror.

Kayla laughed again, "maybe you can show us the apartment at least to put Toby's stuff away, and then we can hit up the shops so that I can see how you navigate public spaces with her. Hey Sherlock can you bring out your clicker, that way you can practice marking out where she is and isn't allowed to be in the apartment. Also since you are the second floor, Do you want the first floor to be an acceptable place for her to be?"

Sherlock turned to Mrs. Hudson, "I think that is your decision?"

"Also consider this Mrs Hudson, do you want to be considered an option for help?," asked Kayla.

Mrs. Hudson nodded, "of course, don't be silly I am always going to be willing to help Sherlock and John. But she better stay out of the basement, it is just a mess. Nothing living should ever go down there."

John muttered, "maybe our rent could've gone to fixing that." 

Sherlock held back a laugh.

Mrs. Hudson side eyed them, "you could've repaired it when rebuilding your apartment, your rent wouldn't have covered the permits needed to repair that."

Kayla smiled, "okay, so we all agreed the basement is awful? Great, Sherlock take hold of your clicker so we are essentially going to walk around the first floor while you click for okay areas and buzz for nope spots. Also name spots that you want Toby to be aware of. Basically you are going to do this every day until she is familiar with your building. And since I'll be coming in regularly for the next couple of weeks I can definitely tell you when you don't have to mark out the boundaries anymore.

Sherlock nodded, he pulled out the keychain Solomon gave him. He started with Mrs. Hudson's door he clicked the the clicker, "Mrs. hudson's" he said. He walked around the hallway and when they came across the basement he clicked the buzzer and said, "no" and as they rounded up to the stairs he started clicking the clicker until they got to the door. He said, "home," and opened the door. Toby came in and scanned the room around her. She stayed perfectly still. Sherlock started walking her around the living room and the kitchen. He clicked at the food fridge and buzzed at the experiment fridge. 

John placed down the box of Toby's stuff on the kitchen table. He placed the grabbed Toby's bed and brought it to their bedroom. 

Sherlock pressed the clicker as they entered their bedroom, saying "bedroom." Toby saw her bed and hopped on, wagging her tail. Sherlock smiled, he prompted toby to walk around the flat more, pressing the clicker for Rosie's room pointing it out for her, and buzzing on the laundry and linen closet. 

He came back to the living room, where Rosie was hanging out with Mrs. Hudson and Kayla. 

Rosie was doing her animal puzzles and making the sound of each animal.

Kayla would respond by telling her what part of the animal kingdom they came from and some facts about each animal. 

Sherlock smiled.

John joined them in the living room, he sighed. "Sherlock we should probably have a go at the shops because I am not thrilled at the idea that somehow we will have your family over for tea, with only. 1.2.3.4 bags of tea." He said as he was rummaging through the cabinets of the kitchen. Not too much food in there was appropriate for tea. Most of it was essentially toddler snacks, stale ginger nuts, potato crisps,and nutrition bars. There was some vegetables and milk in the fridge but ultimately the kitchen didn't have much. They were the kind of folks who had a lot of take out, because well Sherlock has a lot of people who owe him favors. 

Sherlock sighed, "why not punch in an order online?"

John looked at Sherlock, "Sherlock, Kayla is here to train us on using Toby. We should probably go to the shops to get used to taking Toby in public. Also it is way to late to order anything to come in on time."

"Okay, no point in wasting kayla's time," said Sherlock. 

Kayla nodded in agreement, "okay is there any particular reason why you don't like going to the shops?"

Sherlock huffed, "they are crowded, the machines never work, and people are stupid."

Kayla looked at Sherlock, "okay crowded, how does being crowded make you feel and what makes those feelings more tolerable."

"I don't like crowded because it is too much info, and I can't pick what to focus on. Some times it is so distracting that I loose track of important stuff or I get so focused that I end up in a place with little knowledge as to why I am there," said Sherlock.

Kayla nodded, "okay, this is where Toby can help. Toby can help you stay focused even when overstimulated, think of Toby as a grounding point. And given Toby's nature not only as a herder but also a sight dog. She is going to be able to help you keep track of things. I was told that today when you had some sort of episodic Toby ran off to grab John and Mrs. Hudson. Was that helpful?" 

Sherlock shrugged.

"Yes it was," said John.

Kayla nodded, "okay that's good. Also another helpful thing Toby can do is keep track of the closest exit and take you there if you need to get out of a space fast."

Sherlock nodded, "that would be helpful."

"Okay given that we did kind of cock it up with sending you home with Toby right away, let's pretend that didn't happen and do this properly. So ultimately until you and Toby pass the Public Access Test, you can't bring Toby around vested without me or Solomon or any of the other trainers with PAWS. Again I am only 20 minutes away by bus, so if I am free and you really need me to be around with you, I can do that. Just a heads up, try not to call me in for any cases. I am not particularly screamish but I also don't have much luck with cops. I really don't like being around cops," said Kayla.

Sherlock nodded.

"Okay let's go," said Kayla as she made headway to the door, "always remember to keep disposal bags, because even though Toby is completely toilet trained, it is best not to forget them. Let's actually start with that."

John and Sherlock followed her outside, Mrs. Hudson handed Rosie to John. He decided to pull out stroller because carrying Rosie and groceries was not going to be fun. 

They ended up at the curb in front of 221 Baker Street. Kayla turned to Sherlock and handed him a cue card. 

Sherlock read it and turned to Toby and said "time to go bathroom." He pointed downward. 

Toby looked at Sherlock, and went bathroom.

Sherlock nodded and pressed the clicker.

Kayla clapped her hands, "that is the first time I've ever seen a pup go on command in front of a new owner."

John almost went to clean up after Toby, but Sherlock beat him to the punch.

John laughed, "well looks like you are actually going to clean up something." 

Sherlock smirked, "I can surprise you sometimes." He disposed of the bag and did a quick run up to 221b to wash his hands with Toby following him up. He promptly returned to John, Rosie, and Kayla on the curb. 

Kayla waved at Sherlock, "okay Sherlock where is the closest grocery shop?"

Sherlock shrugged, "we do it all online now." 

Kayla raised an eyebrow at him.

John sighed, and pointed down the street, "there's a Tesco that way."

John started pushing Rosie and her stroller that way.

"Okay Sherlock, let's start heading that way, but remember Toby is just simply supposed to walk with you, if you sense him pulling you when it isn't an emergency I am going to need you to press the buzzer," said Kayla, as she pulled out a notebook and a vest that said PAWS trainer and she put the vest on. "Just a heads up Sherlock, I am supposed to write down my observations for record keeping purposes."

Sherlock nodded, "that's all fine." They walked the block to the closest Tesco. Toby kept a good pace along side Sherlock and she wasn't distracted by anyone or anything. When they got to the front of the shop, John and Rosie was there waiting for them. Sherlock waved at them.

Kayla came up to them, "okay Sherlock, Toby. That was a fantastic. You are working together rather well." 

Sherlock smiled, "okay what do we do in the store?" 

Kayla shrugged, "i don't know what your shopping habits are, so really I can't adjust that for you."

Sherlock replied, "we get everything online, I am not even sure if we are allowed back in this Tesco yet."

"Hey John do you want to do a divide and conquer or a we stick together approach?" Asked Kayla.

John looked at Sherlock, "I think a stick together approach will work best."

Kayla nodded, "yeah that sounds smart, do you already know what you want?"

John looked at Sherlock who shrugged at him, "oh come on Sherlock you must know what type of food one needs to get for afternoon tea."

"I deleted it," said Sherlock.

John and Kayla sighed. John remembered that selective memory is indeed a symptom of C-PTSD but sometimes he really wish he knew what caused him to delete stuff because sure he says it frees up space in his mind, but sometimes John wondered if there was more to the stuff that went into what he forgot. Like after the whole Eurus thing, it made sense that Sherlock forgot about how airplanes work. "Okay let's just get a box of tea, some milk, a cake, maybe some sandwiches, ginger nuts, and definitely some sugar because you burnt it all when you wanted to show Rosie ash snakes and she couldn't get enough of them."

"Well that just means we need some baking soda too. And can we get more honey, but not the fake stuff real hone," asked Sherlock. 

John sighed, "I mean if you can find it in this store, yes, otherwise we will have to go to one of the outdoor markets."

Sherlock nodded, "yeah you can do that."

"I am surprised you haven't gotten a bee keeper to barter with," said John.

"They are surprisingly peaceful people, and the folks who cause them the most trouble tends to be massive corporations, but believe me if the opportunity pops up I am going to do it, even if it is below a 5 on the interest scale," replied Sherlock with a slight smile.

John laughed.

Kayla looked at them, "okay are we done because I mean we should probably start shopping."

John nodded, and pushed Rosie's stroller into the stroller parking and grabbed a cart to putting her into it. He wore Rosie's baby bag, one of those weird ones that looked like an engineer corps bag, it was a gag gift from one of the guys in his Veteran PTSD group. After one of the group members saw him running around with a floral bag petunia pickle bottom that Mary got. It was an impractical thing that while everything had it's place there is such thing as too many things to fit in such a large bag. It was at one point bigger than Rosie. He really didn't like the thing, but he wasn't about to let toxic masculinity stop him from using a £200 bag. Rosie laughed as she was put in the shopping cart. 

Sherlock grimaced, "John you have to admit there is an obscene amount of germs on those things." 

John shrugged his shoulders, " I don't know Sherlock if you can keep human body parts in a fridge next to food we ate before Rosie came along, I am sure you can let Rosie sit in a shopping cart." 

"Well as long as she doesn't lick it, i won't complain," replied Sherlock.

And as if Rosie knew the exact thing to do in that moment, she started licked the handle and rubbing her hands all over it and the handle and licking her hands.

Sherlock took a deep breath, John and Kayla laughed. Rosie gave a smile like she knew exactly what she was doing.

Kayla gestured at the gate, "well let's get on with it. Let's start with tea."

Sherlock almost went through the turnstile, but got stuck with Toby's lead. 

John laughed. 

Sherlock pushed through and bent down to untangle the lead, but Toby figured it out before he had to start. Sherlock started to laugh. 

Kayla nodded and wrote something into her notebook.

Sherlock picked up the lead again.

John pointed at an aisle, "Sherlock, the tea is down that aisle."

Sherlock nodded and started walking with Toby down the aisle. He found the tea with relative little problem and placed it in the cart. "Okay what's next?"

"The biscuits are in the same aisle," replied John.

Sherlock grabbed a couple of boxes of Ginger Nuts and tossed in a couple of different other varieties and dropped them into the cart.

John rolled his eyes, "Sherlock, stop, you don't need that many biscuits."

Sherlock looked at John, and tossed another box of Ginger Nuts into the cart. 

John glared at Sherlock, "Rosie, don't pick up the habit okay. Biscuits are a sometimes treat and it is not nice to continue doing something after a person tells you to stop."

Rosie nodded and looked at John and Sherlock, she made an attempt to grab another box of biscuits.

John sighed and pushed the cart away from the biscuits.

Kayla laughed.

Sherlock with a smirk said, "what's next?"

John glared, "sugar, honey, and baking soda are all in the next aisle." He started to push Rosie and the cart over to the baking aisle.

Sherlock and Toby followed them. 

Kayla round out the group writing in her notebook as they went through the store.

Sherlock looked through all the honey options, frowning.

John sighed, "just pick one of them!"

Sherlock glared at him, "John all of them have been treated in someway that basically stops it from being real honey!" He picks up one, "this one has corn syrup added to it!" He picks up another jar, "this one states that is has been pasteurized!" He picks up another one, "and this one is just golden syrup in a bear bottle." 

Kayla laughed, "I feel like I was spoiled back home, in Oakland even our regular grocery stores had honey from our region. The farmer's market and some of the fancier shops you were able to pick which neighborhood you wanted the honey from. I'd just go with the pasteurized one at least it is hasn't had any added sugar, the others have things added to it, so you stuck to only one kind of sugar."

Sherlock nodded, "that does seem like the logical solution for now.”

Kayla shrugged, "maybe for one of our outings we can go to one of the farmer's markets and hopefully there are some honey folks there."

Sherlock looked at her, "I'd like that." He dropped the jar of pasteurized honey into the cart and grabbed more sugar and baking soda than one should use, hinting that him and Rosie might make more experiments.

John smiled, "okay onto the bakery and deli.”

John grabbed a pack of finger sandwiches that had a wide variety of sandwiches from the deli counter.

Sherlock inspected the cakes available, holding them up for Rosie to see if she has a preference toward one or the other. 

John grabbed one of the cakes, “don’t hold them both and expect her to make a choice, she might expect both of the cakes to be chosen.”

"Oh shit, Sherlock, you went full fairy!" 

John and Sherlock turn around to see who yelled at them. 

There stood a man in an extremely expensive suit and holding up his iPhone, a flash goes off, "heh I called it, the rest of the blokes are going to get a real good laugh out of this. You and your doctor got a baby and a dog, seriously the whole bag." 

John squinted to look at who was yelling at them, he recognized him, Sebastian the man who hired them for the bank case a few years back. "Can you not?"

Sebastian laughed "sorry John, but there is a whole lot of gambling going on this. Oh and just to be get all the answers at this point, is Sherlock a top, bottom, or verse. And can he deep throat? Like this is a gambling pool running since 2002, and he is the only variable stopping us from picking a winner, not that it matters the interest alone on the betting pool has been amazing. I mean we started with £10,000 the pool money is now £42,500.

John took a menacing step toward Sebastian, he hopes that Sebastian will just stop talking because right now he was getting the urge to fight him. 

"Oh come on Sherlock, for once you are speechless, this is brilliant," continued Sebastian.

Toby barked.

John turned around and saw Sherlock, his teeth was grinding, and fingers were twitching, a cake dropped next to him. "Shit," John pressed the start button on his watch." 

Toby continued barking and pawing at Sherlock. Toby rears back a little and launches herself at Sherlock knocking him slightly off balance.

Sherlock tensed up, and took a deep breath, "oh hello Sebastian, how is your affair going?"

John noted that Sherlock was out for 10 seconds, okay that was the high end of average. Both times he saw this happen has been in times where Sherlock is dealing with intense interpersonal conflict.

Sebastian looked at Sherlock slightly shocked, "I don't know what you mean?"

"You have a wedding ring on, and two different shades of lipstick on your neck, one more likely for a women our age, but the other shade the lipstick is more like one would see on someone in their early 20's and at worst someone in their late teens. Aren't you a little too young to be dating a girl half your age," snipped Sherlock.

Sebastian scoffed, and walked away.

John started laughing, "your college peers are assholes, who the hell does a betting pool on their classmate's sex lives." 

Sherlock turned to John, "oh did he say what the current results are? I got money in that."

John turned to Sherlock, "why are you in on that?"

Sherlock started laughing, "I am the wild card in it all, I knew I was included in their stupid pool, and the fact is if the pool get's 15 years old, the last remain betting factor gets all the money, so either I submit my results and win a good chunk of the money, or I hold out till June and I win the entire pot."

John turned to Sherlock, "so we hold out till June and we get £42,500."

Sherlock nodded, "yes."

John smirked, "you sure you can wait?"

"I'm 36 years old, and I haven't really been interested in anyone who is interested in me till fairly recently. John it really is up to you." Sherlock winked.

Kayla started laughing, "you think that will cover the cost of making the basement livable?"

John and Sherlock joined in on the laughter.

Kayla stopped laughing, "Sherlock, do you notice when Toby is barking at you?" 

Sherlock stared at Kayla, "not at all, she has been a well behaved dog this entire time."

Kayla gestured at the cake on the ground, "how do you think that got there? Toby has been trained to only bark when someone is having a seizure.”

Sherlock looked at the cake, it was like the one he was just holding up for Rosie until Sebastian showed up. "I don't know, I really don't like not knowing things."

"John, I saw you keep count, do you want to tell Sherlock what you were counting?" Asked Kayla.

Sherlock looked at john.

John sighed, "Sherlock I think you are having Absence Seizures, Ella pointed them out during the appointment today, but we've all been seeing you spacing out a lot more lately. I mean I thought it was just you going into your mind palace, but the more I see, the more I think Ella is right, you are going to need to see a neurologist."

Sherlock frowned, "I thought people are supposed to outgrow those?"

"Most do, but some folks need life long follow up. Did you get them as a kid?" Asked John.

Sherlock shrugged his shoulders, "I don't really remember much of it."

John sighed, "well luckily we can just ask your parents later."

Sherlock nodded, he looked around to see if anyone noticed the cake, he picked it up made a motion to swap it with a similar cake but wasn't dropped, but Rosie started to openly reach for the broken cake. Sherlock tried to subtlety hide the broken cake. 

Rosie started crying. 

Sherlock whispered to Rosie, “Why do you want the ruined cake?”

A staff member showed up and notices ruined cake and glares at Sherlock trying to put it back. 

John grabs the ruined cake and puts in the cart while grabbing another cake so that they could at least have a good cake. 

Rosie smiles.

Sherlock laughs, “Mycroft could probably have one to himself.”

Kayla wrote something into her note book, and nodded. Well judging from our conversation earlier, I think all we have left to buy is the milk. 

Sherlock and Toby made their way to the dairy case, grabbed a milk and a cream and placed it in the cart. 

All of them made their way to the chip card machines, Sherlock emptied out the content of the cart to the machine and started to try running it, it was almost going well, when suddenly.

“Hello sir, security alerted us that you are actually banned from using any self check out kiosk at a Tesco,” said a staff member with a strained smile.

Sherlock sighed, and motioned for John.

“Sorry neither are you,” said the staff member with an ever widening smile.   
John huffed, and looked at a rather confused Rosie and then turned to Kayla, “Do you think you can do it?” He said holding back a slight laugh.

Kayla started laughing hysterically, she went up to the machine and ran the order through with no problem. She turned to the staff member, “You know that is a stupid rule, if you ain’t got no one minding the the till.”

The staff member just smiled and waved them all good bye.

They all proceeded back to the cart coral and unlocked Rosie’s stroller from the stroller parking. John and Sherlock placed all the groceries and Rosie in the stroller and made their way back to 221 B Baker Street.

Kayla followed behind them writing notes. 

By the time they made it to 221 B, Rosie was already napping.

John gently picked her up and made his way up the stairs to lay her down for her nap.

Sherlock went to grab the groceries, and noticed that Toby was already holding a bag, Sherlock smiled and went up with Toby at his side. 

Kayla smiled, and continued writing in her note book. “Hey Sherlock mind if I come up, so that we can go over the notes. I mean, you did really well today, you and Toby are a great team, she is pretty intuitive for what you need so far from what we have witnessed, but I am definitely going to have to work with you and Toby to see how she can best help you when you are facing issues in particular the suspected seizures, but we can’t know our plan of action until you know your plan of action for the seizures. Otherwise, lets try seeing if we can do a training at a place where you actually have to interact with people because that bit there with the kiosk was ridiculous. So was there anything you felt the need to improve on and do you think Toby has helped you do somethings to day that you otherwise would’ve struggled with tot the point that you would consider not going through with the task.”

Sherlock shrugged, “I mean honestly, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with going to to grocery store, and even if I went with John to the store we rarely ever got things done because I would often notice something that easily turned into a case or got us kicked out. I think Toby was pretty good at making sure we got through the task."

Kayla nodded and wrote more in her notebook. "Okay well I better start heading back to the college, see you tomorrow." She waved good bye at Sherlock and pet Toby on her head. "Also, you can't have her out with a vest by yourself until you past your test." She removed the vest and Toby flopped over on her side. "You did a good job today, time for belly rubs!" 

Sherlock joined in on the belly rubs. 

Kayla grabbed the vest and stuffed it into her backpack, "yeah I am just going to take this with me so we don't have you running around with a vested dog without passing your test."

Sherlock acted slightly offended, "I swear I wouldn't break the rules."  
Kayla stared him down, "Sherlock your track record says otherwise."

Sherlock did his best attempt at pouting puppy eyes.

"Boy bye," quipped Kayla and with that she dashed off with a slight flourish.

Sherlock looked down at Toby, "you did a good job today, let's head up to your new home."   
He bent down to pet her head and she leaned into his touch. Sherlock smiled and headed to the stairs and Toby ran upstairs.


	7. Crystal Clear-ish

Chapter 7

Aithne stared at her patient board in the meeting room of Maureen Russo house. It had three spots open, she looked at the waiting list. She looked at all the files of those on the list and all of them were very much deserving of getting out of the institutions, and all of them had heart breaking stories of the trauma that got them there. She also looked at the file of Eurus Holmes which just came to her private fax machine. She enjoyed a challenge but she knew from just looking at her file that she could easily break the balance of the house. Russo had 15 beds, there was 12 people here currently and she wasn't sure if she should take on Eurus even though she was quite fond of her. No one really got Aithne like Eurus did, sure with time her twin Blaze, understood what made Aithne tick and they even came to enjoy each other’s company, but Eurus got Aithne right away. It wasn't in the same way Eurus read the other less significant people. "No wait, people aren't insignificant, cannot think like that anymore. I can't slip up now." She loudly thought to herself. No, Aithne thought Eurus saw her as someone who could almost understand her in way not even her brothers could dream of. Twelve people’s chances at reclaiming their lives depended on this program, and the mere presence of Eurus could toss that progress out. 

"Nah fuck it, the stupider people, the people who were so wrapped up in other people's business and lives that it was just sooo boring. Most people are boring, it is what people survive and how they cope that makes them interesting. Aithne liked putting people back together, she liked seeing them become boring and happy. Not that she wasn't happy, she was happy she loved her life and looked forward to the future. She smiled if this offer came to her 5 years back she would've dropped everything to chase after Eurus. Trying to find that level of intense affinity for another person was a major driving force in her early life, she always thought it weird given that she has a twin, one would think having a twin would do that, but no her twin was always more like her brothers than her and honestly Blaze was rather stupid before he figured his shit out. 

But as she just kept finding new ways to do things to keep up her end of the bargain made at the Farm, Eurus promised to get her out, but she had to come back for her. One could easily assume that Eurus was one of the kids who died in the fire, but deep down Aithne thought that Eurus was too smart for that. But she thought 25 years in a secret compound that wasn’t supposed to exist might mean that the Eurus she knew was not the Eurus on that island. Would Eurus even remember her. Did Mycroft remember her? Was that why she was contacted? She smirked, she knew that her house was one of the best programs out there even if it was a bit flying by the seat of their pants at times. She rather liked all of her clients and she did root for them she wanted them to live their best life. Eurus on the other hand always thought it funny to make the other kids at the Farm do what she wanted, and sure it was funny but Aithne always thought such a power can be used for such terrible things, especially when you throw in the inevitable problems that comes with being isolated for so long. She read more of Eurus's file and she saw what Eurus made so many people do to themselves. She smirked, Eurus got really good at her little trick. Maybe if she could use it for good, there would be some real amazing stuff right there. She laughed, oh the terrible mind feedback loops she could break. 

She looked at her calendar, she was indeed due for a sabbatical. Maybe she could quietly take it and spend the year trying to work with Eurus privately. No one needed to know what she was doing, she could just say she is taking a break from academia to focus on learning new techniques to potentially implement at Russo house, she could be one of them asshole psychiatrists who says they did some soul searching in some eastern country to rebrand centuries old techniques as some commodity to be used in the self help market. Or she could just say she is volunteering in another country but that would mean the hospital would want her taking pics for their social media campaigns and that can get sticky real fast. Or she could just say she needed the time to work on her issues, but that could easily bring in too many questions. This could be doable, but she was feeling a little too emotional and sentimental , and she always made stupid decisions when she was feeling like that. Maybe she needed a second opinion.

She picked up her phone and paged the day program coordinator, Crystal. She was a good second opinion on this topic.

"What is it boss?" Came a breathless Crystal. "You don't page unless it is an absolute emergency. Woah three spots available, I can see how that can be a conundrum. I mean we got to pick three people who can stand each other who can also stand the other 12 people here. I..."

Aithne held her hand up, "that isn't the start of it. Do you think if we can pick the three new folks I can take the time for a sabbatical?"

Crystal took a breath, "why do you need a sabbatical did some project come up?"

Aithne shook her head, "no. But answer me honestly, your brother if given a chance would you in good conscience get him out of his institution and bring him to your home?"

Crystal tilted her head to the side, "no, I mean folie au deux is rather serious. Also he isn't in an institution anymore, you made sure of that. And I mean the court order does have it required that we are not allowed in the same state. Why? Did you get a case with one of the kids you stayed with at the Farm? Wait... you said you hated all the other kids except one."

Aithne smirked.

"Is Eurus still alive?" Asked Crystal.

Aithne's smirk turned into a smile. 

"Oh she is your new case. I mean I think you should think about it before doing it. She is a driving force for you, maybe you should just at least visit and sense if she can work out here, but acting without thinking will be quite dangerous," replied Crystal. 

Aithne leaned back in her chair, "would you visit your brother?"

Crystal smirked, "yes, I mean honestly I don't even get why we have the court order, I mean obviously they fucked up. You would think siblings killing abusive parents with a ridiculous amount of CPS reports against them would be excused a little bit. I mean I don't think I'll kill again. I don't know about Charlie. Maybe he would, I could see him going for a killing spree of child abusers. But I mean all he is doing now is living in a radical faerie collective, they say he is happy." 

Aithne ran her fingers through her undercut. "I think I can start with a visit. And if I think we can build boundaries. Maybe she can do the day programs and she can stay with me. She deserves a chance, she gave me a chance to get out of there."

Crystal looked at Aithne, "I don't know if that is a good idea, you tend to isolate when focused and may I remind you of your habit of falling into 24/7 power dynamic relationships a little too easily. Maybe she can stay here that way you can limit your time with her." 

Aithne shook her head, "trust me limiting her hours with the other clients would help all of us. I mean I doubt things will go that way, I always burn people out, Eurus is someone I don't want to burn out, I would be extremely mindful."

Crystal nodded, "well we should pick the three people we want as soon as possible."

Aithne looked at all the files, "i already stacked them in order of who I find most compatible with the current house down."

Crystal grabbed the top 5, "I'll set meetings with the top five, and do you want me to already set up rides to all their locations or do you think video conferencing would be sufficient."

Aithne looked at Crystal, “that would be nice but remember I have lecture on Wednesday and Fridays and we have interns to supervise on Mondays and Thursdays.." 

"Tuesdays it is," replied Crystal and they opened the top 5 files, okay it looks like they are all in the same hospital. Do you want them back to back or do you want a break between each one?"

"Breaks please," Aithne looked at the board, "I need you to come with me, a second set of eyes would be helpful because there are things I miss unfortunately and you are very much able to fill up my blind spots."

Crystal smile and nodded, "thanks for thinking I am capable of making such decisions."

Aithne waved her hand in the air, "you spend the most time with the clients, I think you are the one most qualified to make the decision on if they will fit in with the current residents. Also would you like to come with me to England? I find that you do keep me from making emotional knee jerk decisions." 

Crystal nodded, "as long as you are paying and prescribe me an Ativan for the flight."

Aithne smirked, "I cannot write that script but I am sure I can find someone to do it. Do you still got that friend with the private jet?"

"You want comfortable or discreet?" Replied Crystal.

Aithne smiled, "discreet."

"I can do that, I'll have to leave him a bit tied up if you know what I mean," said Crystal with a smile. 

“Tell Mr. Jim we’ll pay him back for the fuel and staff,” said Aithne.

Crystal laughed, “I am not about to let Mr. Jim thinking we can pay for shit, I got to milk his Fi-Dom fetish for all it is worth. Also I need to get back to the program, can you make sure to hand over to Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Royce all the info needed to update everyone’s med orders. Also can you look into seeing if we can get more info on EMDR, one of the clients saw a youtube video and now they all want to try it. Ooh and also we are due for another room sweep and to kick the asses of the guys down at Amoeba because yet again the clients all managed to get another copy of ‘Requiem for a Dream’ and "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" and we all know how annoying they all get after that film airs.”

Aithne sighed, “ah yes when they all start sharing using stories which triggers someone to relapse… that is never a fun day here.” 

“Okay well see you later,” replied Crystal.

Aithne took a deep breath, and picked up her private phone and dialed a number. “Hello Mycroft.”

“Let me guess you made your decision,” said Mycroft.

“Yes, I did, I am coming over, I currently don’t have set travel time, but I can make the time to do it, if you give me coordinates to know where to come. I’ll tell you when things are set up,” replied Aithne.

“Well. see. you. soon.” said Mycroft in clipped down tone that caught the total lack of enthusiasm for the situation.

“Oh come on Mycroft no need to be a Mr. Grumpy Rump about it, I am sure she could benefit from social interaction because 25 years of loneliness can really pull a number on a person,” Aithne said in a mocking tone. “I can’t wait to see what you actually look like as an adult,’ continued Aithne with a laugh.

“Good bye,” replied Mycroft, he thought the doctor to be rather weird and he still felt uneasy about the situation as a whole.


	8. tricky conversations and tea cups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sherlock and John has the rest of Sherlock's family over for tea.

er 8

John and Sherlock were in the kitchen fidgeting with the final details of things to prepare for afternoon tea with Sherlock’s parent and brother.

Rosie slept quietly in the play yard in the middle of the sitting room, a tape of Sherlock playing violin softly plays next to her. 

“Biscuits and finger sandwiches are plated. We are all going to just keep all the other stuff as is until need be right?” said John,

Sherlock nodded, “I mean unless you want to make the tea now and slip a tea cozy over it?’ 

John stared at Sherlock in mild disbelief.

Sherlock tried to keep a straight face but started laughing.

John joined in the laughter.

“You should've seen your face,” replied Sherlock.

The door bell rang, Rosie stirred a little bit, John and Sherlock slightly hovered to see whether or not they should pick her up or not. Rosie went back to sleep.

Sherlock looked at the video doorbell and saw it was his parents, “Hello mum and dad, I am just going to buzz you in. Rosie is taking her nap and we didn’t want to wake her to answer the door.”

John looked at Sherlock, “you could’ve easily just gone there by yourself.”

“I don’t want to get left alone with them!” hissed Sherlock. 

John shrugged, “Perfectly understandable.”

They heard foot steps at the door and they heard a knock. Rosie started crying.

Sherlock sighed and went over to the play yard to pick up Rosie, she was due for a diaper change any ways. “Don’t worry my love there isn’t much to worry about, it’s just my parents at the door.”

John was already standing at the door, he smiled at Rosie and Sherlock. He offered his hand to Sherlock,

Sherlock grabbed John’s hand tightly it kept him grounded in the moment. They both took a deep breath together. 

John opened the door.

Violet and Siger lit up at seeing Sherlock and John and Rosie. 

“Oh hello my darling,” exclaimed Violet as she hugged Sherlock and Rosie. “How are you?”

Sherlock shrugged and pulled Rosie a bit higher in his grip, “I am doing quite well mum, I haven’t gotten in any trouble lately and while I haven’t been doing to many cases these days I have found other ways to occupy my time.” He was still holding John’s hand.

“Hello John, nice to see you as always,” greeted Siger, offering a hand to shake to John which John returned.

“And nice to see you Mr. Holmes,” replied John.  
Siger winced, “no John please feel free to call me Siger, I’d want you to see me as a friend, not a teacher.”

John looked at Siger, “Okay Siger, why don’t you and ms Holmes…

Violet interrupeted, “John please call me Violet.”

‘Oh okay, Violet and Siger, please come in and join us at the sitting room,” said John, as he motioned to the couches.

Violet and Siger both looked at Sherlock and John’s joined hands as they took seats on the couch under the spray painted happy face. They smiled and at almost at the same time, “is there anything Sherlock that you wish to share with us?”

Sherlock took a deep breath, and looked at his parents, “I mean I guess, me and John are now officially a couple, not just flat mates or partners solving crimes, we are officially a romantic couple. I mean I doubt it comes to you as a shock, but I mean given that Mycroft doesn’t really doe emotional entanglements and well Eurus is still at Sherringford, me being with John just puts the breaks on the idea of you having biological grandkids.”

Violet and Siger looked at each other.

“Oh Sherlock dear, don’t worry about that, we just want you to be happy. John has been so good for you. Yes you had your rough spots with him but what relationship doesn’t have hard times. And we don’t care about the grandkids, if anything we’ll treat Rosie as a grand child if you allow us to,” said Violet.

Siger nodded his head in agreement with his wife.

John and Sherlock let out a breath of relief and also took their seats. Rosie squirmed uncomfortable, Sherlock pat the bottom of Rosie’s diaper, “looks like it is time for a change, bye.”

Sherlock bounced off the couch with Rosie and ran up the stairs to her room to change her diaper. John gave a slight look of “why the hell are you leaving me alone with them?” as Sherlock ran off to the changing table on the second floor bathroom.

The Holmes Parents smiled as they saw their son off to take care of his boyfriend’s daughter. 

John returned the smile to the best of his abilities despite being rather annoyed at being left in this situation.

“So how long has this thing been going on?” asked Siger. 

John swallowed, “About two weeks now, I mean we always danced around the subject, but even more so now.”

Violet smiled, “Well I am glad you finally found each other, I mean you have been living together longer than many a married and now divorced couple at this point.” 

John laughed, “well I guess you are right, but we definitely had our rough spots, but we are working on it. I mean we’ve both been tackling our individual issues in therapy. I mean the only reason I even learned about Sherlock returning my feelings was because Rosie wrecked our room two weeks ago and in the cleaning of it I found his letters which he wrote as an exercise from his therapist. And I have been working on my anger and grief issues. We are even doing a bit of couple’s therapy to start off this relationship in the healthiest way possible, because at this point Sherlock is practically a second parent for Rosie, and I don’t have any family outside of my sister, and Mary didn’t have any family either. So I want to make sure Rosie has that support system.” 

Violet interrupted, “John I hope this doesn’t come along as imposing, but I think you and Sherlock are going to be together for a long time. And if Rosie considers Sherlock as second parent, we might as well treat her like we are her grand parents. We would like to give her a trust fund and a school fund, so that she doesn’t have to worry about anything. We can even put her name on the list for any public school in the country, our family has connections in pretty much all of them, so if she keeps her grades decent then you don’t have to worry about picking the best school possible for her. Luckily Sherlock and Mycroft wasn’t able to burn down any bridges to the girl schools, if you are to somehow find yourselves raising a boy, I suggest don’t let Sherlock any where near the interviews for Eton or Harrow, Sherlock graduated from Harrow, but he managed to blow up a lab before he left. He started at Eton but he was participating in a physics competition and his rocket managed to get in a major accident, I mean they didn’t expel him out right because it was obvious that one of his peers sabotaged his launch platform, but you really can’t recover from launching a rocket that ended up to the dismay of a certain security team for a certain family proving that they indeed were not ready for every possible outcome of attack. Don’t tell Sherlock we told you that story. The university process is one Sherlock really can’t ruin because he contributed more than he destroyed so he ultimately is for the most part not someone black listed, he is just not allowed at fundraising events because his deductions caused people to leave before they wrote checks.” 

John laughed, “Violet, Siger, that is a very generous offer, but I am not sure I am ready to take you up on the offer. I mean not now you know, maybe after me and Sherlock settle more into the idea of being an us, you know.”

Siger turned to Violet, “maybe we can slow down on that for a second, we don’t want to scare Sherlock and John, for all I know you are secretly planning a wedding. And I hope you aren’t because we saw the pictures of the wedding Sherlock helped plan, and they look like Sherlock is more than capable of planning his own wedding.”

Sherlock came back to the room holding Rosie, “John we’ve only been together officially as a couple for two weeks and you are already talking with my parents about marriage?”

John blushed and found himself struggling at what to say, “I wasn’t talking about marriage, your parents were.”

Sherlock handed Rosie to John and smiled at the two of them, “you have to admit it wouldn’t be a bad idea, I mean we have been together longer than a lot of married couples, and we have a relationship that is built on a really solid and battle tested foundation. We are already raising a kid and we did just get a dog. And someone has to use the trust fund my parents set up for any potential grand kids. And it would make things a lot easier if one of us got injured and went to the hospit… I’ll just stop now.” 

Rosie hugged Sherlock. Violet smiled.

John looked at Sherlock absolutely beaming. 

Sherlock sat down next to John and smiled. He pressed a quick kiss to John’s cheek, a rare public display of affection that was initiated by Sherlock that was more than just the holding of hands. 

“Just so you know I am not opposed the idea Sherlock, but we don’t have to rush it,” said John.

Violet’s smile went even wider, she was happy her son managed to find this despite every thing that he has gone through. “How has your visits to Eurus been going?”

“They have been going okay mummy, we mainly just play the violin together, sometimes we play chess. She recently started talking again, but most of the time she just wants to know what growing up around other people is like, even though I don't think I am the best person to ask such questions. We do have a little debate about whether it is better to be alone and truly alone or being alone in the presence of other people," Sherlock frowned. "She was apparently in Sherringford since she was 10, and they kept her for the most part isolated. Did you know the UN consider isolation over 15 days as torture?” replied Sherlock, his face twitched slightly and he took a deep breath. "Honestly what did Uncle Ruddy do that got him the ability to do what he did to Eurus, that just seems like an awful lot of resources to put into one person." 

Violet and Siger both frowned, they both felt like they did fail Eurus, but at the same time they didn’t know what to do. Situations like this are incredibly rare. That's why Siger found himself talking to a lot of his friends and colleagues who worked in psychology, there had to be some path out. "Sherlock, I am sorry you felt that way growing up, but believe your father and I when we say we only thought we were doing our best at the time. And honestly Ruddy was my big brother, he was my oldest brother. And that is just how things were done for us, oldest child took charge. I guess given your brother, that probably isn't a suitable way to raise children."

Sherlock waved his hand, "no need to apologize, both of you were for the most alright, but some things are out of your control. If only some people would learn how to handle that." The doorbell rings, Sherlock hands Rosie over to John and looks at the video feed and sees Mycroft at the door, "and speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear." Sherlock turned on the intercom, "hello brother my, how are you doing?" 

"You know damn well I am not having a good day, tea time with the parents is rarely a good time, they are just so tedious to deal with," said Mycroft. "Let me in, John may not have had an alcohol binge in a while but I am sure you have some strong stuff lying around, for the stressful days. And today has been so trying."

John frowned at the alcohol comment, but was rather annoyed to see that was yet another thing Mycroft took account of.

Sherlock suppressed a laugh.

Violet and Siger looked personally offended. 

"Well Mycroft, please come up." And with that Sherlock pushed the buzzer to let Mycroft in.

Violet and Siger approached the door and motioned for Sherlock to go back to the couch. 

Sherlock took his seat, pulling his legs up in the seat, he folded his hands and tucked them under his chin. He was buzzing in anticipation in the way a child is gleeful when a rival gets in trouble.

Mycroft ascended the stairs and waited at the door. He sighed and tapped his umbrella against his leg because he really didn't want to do this. "Sherlock how long does it take for you to open a door." 

Violet opened the door, "so you think we are tedious?"

Mycroft took a few steps back, "I'd apologize but I really wouldn't be sorry.” He tried to keep his composer even though that really isn’t the best way to open a meeting like this. An awkward silence filled the air, in moments like this it was like a silent battle, because being first talk would loose.

Sherlock looked at the interaction between his parents and Mycroft, he felt a little bit of childish glee but ultimately he was curious to see where all of this went. 

Mycroft was usually very guarded when it came to their parents, almost to the point of walking on egg shells. Not out of fear of physical endangerment, he just didn’t like feeling like he disappointed someone. He always felt weird about the fact that they always treated him like a small adult, when Sherlock and to some extent Eurus had a bit more ability to do things kids do. Maybe it was the age gap, but he felt like he was a third parent and at times the only parent. It wasn’t even like they were gone, it was just they were fairly hands off about parenting in the first place. Sometimes he found himself wondering if he would be the person he is today if it wasn’t for the fact that he felt such a heavy responsibility over his siblings. He took a deep breath, and stared at his parents. “Also dear mother and father, you are a bit slow to act, I mean really what changed that you both have decided to take a more active role in our lives. I mean I thought we were only a holidays family, but here we are on just some random Friday evening, as if we were really truly interested in each other business."

John and Sherlock both had a stifled laugh that they tried to hold back. John gently nudged Sherlock, and cleared his throat. Sherlock sat up about more straight on the couch. 

Rosie laughed because she thought them to be quite silly.

"I think I am going to get the kettle started," exclaimed Sherlock.

"And I going to help Sherlock," added John.

"Helping" said Rosie as John whisked her away to the kitchen.

Violet laughed but stopped when she turned to Mycroft with a look of concern but a touch of anger.

Mycroft shrank into the chair as if to try avoiding the conversations with his parents by hiding.

"Mycroft I know we can't change the past but we can change how we are now. And I hope you can try and let us attempt a change," pleaded Violet. She reached out to try and gently pat Mycroft on his shoulder but he maneuver out of the way quite vehemently, and Violet quickly withdrew her hand. 

"Why does things have to change?" Spat out Mycroft, he stood up and picked a seat even farther away from his parents. He sat with his legs crossed and gripping at the arm rests slightly, leaning forward. Mycroft noticed his father copying the same body language, he laughed internally, Siger might be aiming to subtly open his trust. Mycroft knew that trick.

Sherlock peeked his head into the sitting room, and quickly withdrew. John and Sherlock shared a look, the kind you share wit another person when you are both sharing second hand embarrassment or anxiety for someone else. They weren't sure who they were feeling it for though.

"Mycroft, this isn't what most people have had to deal with, and I honestly think that we are going about this the wrong way and I think it is time we try to do better by all of you. And we do want to give you a choice in how we do this," said Siger as he uncrossed his legs, leaned back, letting go of the arm rests, he sat with his body open and palms up. "What can we do to make things easier on you?"

"Hey Sherlock, is this what getting in trouble looked like in your house growing up? Because I am still expecting stuff to get thrown at any moment," whispered John. They still haven't turned on the kettle, they really didn't want to go back to sitting room anytime.

"John, our family has two settings, calmly talking things through to some satisfying ending that may or may not actually work and some of our relatives did occasionally turn to fencing to solve issues. Why would anyone throw stuff in an argument? And why do you expect it?" Said Sherlock looking at John concerned.

"My dad broke our stuff in arguments, it was never his stuff. I hated it when he would punch the wall as well. Arguments happened really easily when I was growing up. And no matter how small the argument, the results was always the same," said John, he was rather stiff when he talked about his dad.

Sherlock nodded, "you can take a break if you want, I can handle them just try to stay in the area, in case I need you to come up with some fake emergency but you don't have to if you feel it isn't safe to be nearby. I just want you to be sure that our home is always going to be safe for you and Rosie."

John offered his hand and Sherlock took it, "Sherlock I am going to stay here with you, but thanks for giving me that option." John squeezed Sherlock's hand tightly and smiled. He turned on the kettle. Essentially setting the clock on a time to return to the awkwardness in the sitting room. 

"You know what Mother, Father! This is the easiest thing for me to do! I mean if I didn't keep track of all of you how would I know when you need trouble or when trouble is coming for you? I mean is it so wrong to keep track when the danger is real. It isn’t paranoia when the threat is real,” snapped Mycroft at his parents.

"Mycroft, it may be easiest for you but does it work for everyone? Also has the constant observance prevented the things you feared most." Said Violet.

"I don't know Sherlock seems to be doing just fine,” Mycroft muttered under his breath. 

“But didn’t he ask you to build some boundaries, I overheard that phone call you made after we left, I don't think the surveillance is working for him, and part of protecting us all, must include keeping us safe mentally as well," replied Violet.

"Mycroft, we get that it makes things easier for you. But what does it do for you? Is it getting in the way of you accessing what you want out of life?" Asked Siger.

Mycroft started laughing, and then he shot a look a his parents. He had a fairly neutral facial expression but something about how he looked at them conveyed a lot.

Violet and Siger leaned a bit back at the look, they were concerned for Mycroft because he seemed to have some barely contained emotions lurking under his composure. They weren't entirely sure if they wanted to dig deeper.

"I got a job that gives me fulfillment. I have a ridiculous amount of power to the point that wars can start or end by my word and sometimes a single look. I have enough money that I don't have to worry about any thing. I think in terms of a life well lived, I think I am doing a damn good job," said Mycroft, his gaze softened, the corner of his mouth slightly quirk as if to aim for a slight smile, but it didn't quite his the rest of his face.

"Of course My that is a huge achievement. And we are for the most part proud of you, sure you could've handled somethings better but we didn't exactly set you up for success when it comes to interpersonal matters. We realize now that while we like our solitude, it was not exactly the best setting to have kids in, socializing you all better probably would've stopped somethings," replied Violet. “But in all seriousness, we know that you have all this surveillance because you want to stop bad things from happening to us, and has those actions stopped the bad things from happening?”

Mycroft stared at his parents, his shoulders slightly slouched and he let out a deep breath. “Okay I’ll level with you on that, but at the same time, things could’ve gone a lot worse if not for my intervention.”

"You're why Moriarty had the info needed to ruin your brother and was implicit on continuing the isolation of your sister in a secret high security jail, one that I am pretty sure shouldn’t exist! Especially when it comes to a ten year old!” Snapped Violet, she looked like she was about to jump out of her seat. 

Siger gently put his hand on Violet's shoulder and she leaned back into the chair.

John and Sherlock tried to stifle an uncomfortable laugh, but quickly regained composure. "Who wants tea?" Said Sherlock in hopes of causing a diversion. John raised the tray of sandwiches and pastures. Rosie raised a biscuit. 

"You are such a middle child,” replied Mycroft with a bit of an eye roll.

“I’d look that up but I think I’d probably just delete that info. Between me not knowing i was a middle child for the past couple decades and the fact that there is no seriously accepted academic articles proving that birth order has an effect on personality and behavior. I am simply not going to waste more of my time and energy looking into that reference” said Sherlock as he brought the tea pot over and placed it on a table out of Rosie’s reach and John placed the tray of food on the center table. 

“Sherlock, it sounds like you spent a great deal of time looking that up. But really brother, we both you know that out of the three of us, you are the least diplomatic one. And really distraction as deflection isn't really a tactic that works in this family, we are rather good on focusing," snipped Mycroft.

"Well okay next time, brother, I'll just let you stew in your discomfort," replied Sherlock.

"Well if I wanted help, I would've asked you," said Mycroft. 

"Okay why can't Sherlock help without asking you, but you can keep spying in us god knows how long without our permission and you consider it protecting us. If we wanted protection we are more than capable of asking you for help," said John with a slight smirk on his face.

Mycroft shot a look at John and Sherlock, "simple, Sherlock doesn't know when he needs help. I found him in enough crack houses and dark alleys to know he is never good at knowing he is in trouble."

Sherlock jumped up to his feet, "that's not fair Mycroft..." Sherlock just stared off into space, his finger gently twitched, his eyes fluttered. Toby who was napping by the fire runs up the Sherlock and starts barking and pawing at Sherlock.

John quickly started the stopwatch on his wrist watch. He put Rosie down in case he needed to provide some medical intervention. Rosie went straight to the biscuits.

"What Sherlock are you at a loss for words? That rarely happens, oh I am just going to have to cherish this moment,” said Mycroft with a slight smile. Mycroft noticed his eyes and they were flickering, he didn’t pay much mind to it. Sherlock looked like he was chewing on something, but him eating was too damn rare. "Chewing on your words aren't you, don't worry they'll come eventually. Can you shut that hound up?"

"I've been sober for over 2 years," finished Sherlock. "Mummy why are you looking at me like that?"

Violet was staring at Sherlock, and she appeared to be concerned.

"Ten Seconds, and Mycroft, Toby doesn't bark unless she senses a seizure and if this is what I think it is, Toby will make it a whole lot easier for Sherlock to go out unsupervised" said John, he pulled out his phone and took note of the time, length, and what was happening at the time of the seizure. John turned to Sherlock's parents, "did anyone ever approach you about Sherlock potentially having seizures when he was younger? I just want to know if this is a new thing or an untreated thing that came back with recent changes."

Violet stopped staring at Sherlock and looked at John, "I believe so, one of primary school teachers was trying to decide if he was day dreaming or having seizures. We didn't look too much into it though because he seemed fine."

John took a deep breath and sighed, "why would you ignore a teacher suspecting your kid is having seizures?"

Mycroft laughed, “They ignored the teacher’s idea because they thought that what one could see as absence seizures was just his brain trying to keep up with all the info coming his way. You know because apparently people don’t know why anti seizure meds did or how they worked. To be honest with you, sometimes they would say a thing about doctors and I am surprised that we all managed to get vaccinated. If the reality didn’t fit their ideal, they would explain it away. But unfortunately some of us have to work in the realm of reality.” 

Violet huffed, "sorry we didn't get enough info, it wasn't like we had the Internet back then."

"You worked at multiple universities, you would think you can just ask someone," snipped back Mycroft. 

John and Sherlock looked at each other, and nodded, because they both agreed with Mycroft on this topic.

"Okay how about we just all agree mistakes have been made and that we can't change that, but we can change how we move forward," said Siger

"Yes that does seem to be the theme of the evening," said Sherlock. 

John scan the room, taking in the general temperament of the room. He got up and walked to the desk and pulled out his laptop. "Okay how about we write a contract about how we are going to move on for say the next three months. After the three months we can meet again and see what worked and what didn't and re-write the terms using the new info."

Violet and Siger looked at each other and nodded. Violet replied, "that sounds doable, what do you think Mycroft? Sherlock?"

"I guess that does sound like a diplomatic solution, I'll give it an attempt. How about you Sherlock," replied Mycroft.

"I mean that is how john and I came upon the agreement to what it would take to move back in together. So I have found that this solution has worked in the past. I agree to this solution," said Sherlock as he grabbed some paper and pens off the mantel.

John nodded and smiled, "okay Violet, Siger, Mycroft and Sherlock, you each get three terms you want for the contract. And when we reconvene, we take a vote about whether or not the term is agreeable or not, and if there is any adjustments needed to a term to make it work, then we can tweak it to be either acceptable or scrap it completely. And none of the terms of the agreement can single out a person by name."

"John, are you going to be adding terms as well?" Asked Violet.

John shook his head, "no I trust Sherlock to make terms that can benefit Rosie and me, I don't want to make it unbalanced." 

Sherlock nodded, "I agree with John, but I think he should get a chance to still add input."

"That would be acceptable," said Mycroft.

Sherlock handed out pens and paper to everyone, "also help yourself to tea and pastries, we actually went to the shops for it. I would hate for our effort to be for nothing."

"Sherlock, you needed to do the training with Toby and we don't want to waste Kayla's time," replied John.

Sherlock took a deep breath, "I guess."

Rosie grabbed a biscuit and handed it to Mycroft, "here."

"Why thank you," Mycroft took the biscuit and set it down.

Rosie grabbed another biscuit and handed it to Mycroft, "here."

"No, thank you," replied Mycroft. 

Rosie left the biscuit on the arm rest. 

"Rosie what are you doing?" Asked Mycroft.

"Helping," replied Rosie.

"I don't want any more," said Mycroft.

Rosie looked at Mycroft holding another biscuit.

"Don't try to give me another biscuit," snapped Mycroft.

John came over and picked up Rosie, "hey Rosie, when someone says no, you stop okay." 

Rosie nodded. 

John started laughing, "why are you trying to reason with a 2 year old?"

"I had years of practicing reasoning with toddlers with your partner over there," quipped Mycroft.

Sherlock huffed and glared at Mycroft.

"Boys stop arguing before you start to escalate and Mycroft, Rosie was only trying to help. She wasn't singling you out for anything," interceded Siger.

Mycroft shrugged his shoulders and continued writing his three terms for the family contract.


	9. Twin Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Hunter has a chat with her brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not going to lie these siblings are kinda all up in each other business, but like if there is one thing I laugh about it is watching siblings trying to co-ordinate the parties they plan to go to to ensure that they don't see each other at the same parties, but like I have yet to meet a set of siblings where despite all the planning their sibling's shenanigans get's back to them. But yeah... I don't think it too weird to write the two of them like that.

Chapter 9 

Dr. Aithne Hunter stared at her brother Blaze, as he sat across the table pouring over lab reports. "So what do you think?"

"I know this isn't exactly the right way the phrase it, but," Blaze took a deep breath, "are you fucking crazy? I mean don't answer that we both know that you are certified crazy, I mean you truly have flown over the cuckoo's nest with that one." He picked up the file between him and his twin sister and started skimming it over again.

"It is kind of irrational, and I know it is a huge risk, but I can't just leave her," replied Aithne.

Blaze laughed, "you've kinda gotten soft as you gotten older you know that right."

"Well you're one to talk," replied Aithne.

"My softness is just a bit of benevolent capitalism that benefits vulnerable populations and fucks with our rival companies," replied Blaze lazily waving his hand in the air. He gestured to his sister, "when you go soft, you treat dangerous people like poorly trained puppies and hope to fix them," 

“They aren’t dangerous people, they are just people who went through trauma and they get fucking locked up because society isn’t willing to deal with the aftermaths of most of the trauma out there. Also I’m not going to lie, I already agreed to meet with Eurus to see if she is a candidate for the program," said Aithne.

Blaze smiled, "of course you did, you were always an act first, think later kind of girl. I'm not going to stop you, but I am so not digging you out of any hole you build with this one. I am guessing you can't keep her at Russo though, would she be staying with you?"

"I haven't thought that far, yeah I probably can't fly by wire this," said Aithne leaning on the table.

"No shit," said Blaze, "yeah still don't get why you thought to set my ass on fire after playing with her that time, like she ripped out a chunk of your hair, because she wasn't patient enough to get her airplane loose. I mean what in that one afternoon screams 'let's be friends' other than holy shit another person who cannot feel pain, let's be not weird together."

"I don't know half of it was, i didn't really like Astana, we looked exactly alike and she was normal, and I wasn't. If anything Eurus was just someone who didn't make me feel weird for wanting to ruin her existence. I found that comforting," replied Aithne, avoiding her brother's gaze.

"Oh yes well I didn't like Astana either but I didn't set her on fire. That was a bit extreme," blaze laughed.

"Well you did try to kill her, too and in sooo many different ways," said Aithne laughed and a loud snort came out.

"Well at least dad saw that and then signed all the necessary paper work to keep her dead and now I'm here being highly worrisome to others because of how I phrase my own narrative of my own personal experience of being trans," said Blaze.

"Yeah I think it is because we both talk about the you before your authentic self as a whole other individual that we both have tried to kill," replied Aithne, trying to hold back a laugh. “Also that is not the most worrisome part about you.

Blaze smiled, "but it makes us sound like terrible people, but the fire thing just makes you seem extra terrible." He placed the case file down and started laughing.

"Boy, you know my crazy terribleness saved all of your asses," said Aithne as she leaned back in her chair and raised her leg.

"But Girl, your little fire stunt is why I can't get a full phalloplasty and I swear to g-d if you put your legs on my desk, I will call the IRB on you so fast," snipped Blaze.

Aithne huffed and quickly planted her feet on the ground, "other than the current conversation, you know I haven't done anything that warrants calling them right? I mean I don't make my colleagues edit the EHR when shit goes wrong. And I thought you said you liked your front hole too much to even consider phallo."

"Yeah, I think I just like making you feel some guilt, but hey you apologized. And I do believe you do run an ethical project and honestly I am not a person who can use that threat, because lord knows my way of running our company raises more eyebrows than your program. But for real though it's true if you weren't so off your kilter, mother probably would've had the chance to spread all her irrational shit on to all of us, you definitely took on the brunt of her control issues." Smirked Blaze, "I mean dad signed my paper for hormones and surgery without her even noticing and could you imagine how much she would've tried to stop it, if she wasn't focused on you, because of the flasher incident. Oh and when Francis joined the Army, she didn't even have a chance to stop him, because she was busy arguing with the school because they were trying to expel you for breaking the jaw of Up-Skirt Seb. And when she found out at his freaking college graduation, Scott wasn't an English Lit major with a minor in the physical sciences, but rather a pharmacology degree with a minor in lit, she was about to lash out so badly at him, but the call came in that you pushed that kidnapper into the path of a train. Too bad you calmed your ass down before Athina could do what she wanted completely unfettered."

"Yeah I really don't get why mother is so set on making sure one of us follow her foot steps. Most parents would be happy with so many STEM doctors in one family," said Aithne.

"Well at least dad is happy," said Blaze, "don't know why he was ever with mother."

"Oh well we all know from that time we found his fetlife, he's a masochist," replied Aithne, she slightly shuddered. 

"I mean mother does allow him to play with men," said Blaze, "she probably allows it so that she can feel some kinship with her favorite authors." 

"Yeah and dad asked her permission and she let him, so I don't know if really isn't as big of a deal as she thinks it is" said Aithne, "I mean if anything the whole 'all her kids are either gay, bi, or trans, is something she could use as a driving force of suffering." 

"I think you can count for 50% of her suffering," replied Blaze with a slight smile spreading across his face. 

"Well if anything the fact that you are a gay, trans man who talks waaay too much about circuit parties in front of her, adds a couple percentage points," Aithne said as she broke out in laughter.

"Can you blame me no one wants to see their dad getting rawed by a train of 30 muscle bears and leather daddies. But g-d bless PrEP," blaze said through the laughter.

"Yeah I get it Blaze, the fact that we got a pill that reduces your chances of getting HIV by 99%, 20 years after the peak of the epidemic is amazing. Can't wait for the shot to hit the market, because my job would be so much easier for some patients, I mean just have them come in once a month, get their invega, depo, and PrEP in one visit, so many of my clients would be happy with that. But we really should include dad on the Google Calendar, I mean it really helped in cutting down the amount of parties we found our siblings at," replied Aithne as her laughter does down. "Maybe all of you should just keep tabs on Grindr or whatever apps you are all using to ensure you don't accidentally over lap fuck buddies."

"No we figured that out, I'm on Grindr, Frances had Scruff until he met his husband and they decided to go monogamous, with exception of occasional threesomes, Scott has Recon when he feels a bit poly and he gets the okay from his wife, and dad has Craigslist and occasionally Growlr," said Blaze as if he was convinced that it was the best possible solution.

Aithne looked at her brother slightly mortified, "I am so glad I am not an MSM, because all of that just sounds terrible awkwardness."

"It isn't that awkward after you set the boundaries," replied Blaze.

"Mmm that sounds like a fucking lie," said Aithne. "And I am all about setting boundaries.

"But for real though, as absurd as it is that you want to visit Eurus, I get it, you didn't really like anyone when you were a kid, and I really don't think you'll be able to put up boundaries with her that would be conducive to her getting out of a program and living a life amongst society. But you feel obligated to at least visit her, will you have company because I can always tag along. I mean I do have to check on our investments in the U.K., so it really wouldn't be hard for me to tag along," said blaze with a smile on his face, that really didn't quite reach his eyes.

Aithne read his expression as concern, and that didn't bother her, "I mean you can tag along, we got a private jet." 

"Wow that Weill Institute donation really made you have a ton of bank," Blaze said with a chuckle.

"No, Crystal is making one of the billionaires they Fi-Doms lend them a jet," replied Aithne.

"You really need to give that woman a raise, I mean look at what she does to survive in this city," said Blaze with a tone that was a cross between indignation and judging, but not really because he wasn't about to judge someone over being a pro-Domme. 

"Their pronouns are they/them," interrupted Aithne.

"Sorry about that, I tend to slip up on non-binary terms, but I always got to keep working on that, because just because I am Trans doesn't stop me from still messing up with other trans and non-binary folks," said Blaze as he stared at the ground.

"But yeah they don't take raises, they rather I give the support staff more raises and I am not about to argue with them," said Aithne as she shrugged her shoulders. "You know because it is hard to survive in this city and Crystal had their whole bevy of FiDom bottoms and of course their fans, so if they want the money else where I am going to listen to them."

"Perfectly understandable, I mean this is funny because you know a couple of weeks ago when dad went to mother to convince her to sign the divorce papers, he bumped into William's mom. And he gave her the full run down on our lives as he does with every single person he is acquainted with, I almost feel like he got enough pride in him for all of us for two over enthusiastic parents," said Blaze.

"You got that right, and mother is trying to make up for that with her level of disapproval in all of our life decisions," said Aithne, she laughed a bit.

"Well William now goes by Sherlock, and is sharing a flat with another man and his daughter and Mycroft is still being a mysterious asshole, but now Wil-Sherlock's mom seems to talk about him with a bit of an edge. So I can only imagine the kind of drama going on there," said Blaze, his voice filled with excitement and a slight lisp. "But they didn't mention Eurus, but Sherlock's mom, did light up when she heard about your work."

"You know it was Mycroft who called me about Eurus, he got my private line and everything, I mean I screamed at him as a greeting because I thought mother managed to track down another one of my phone numbers," said Aithne as she leaned towards her brother. "So do you thinks they know that I was her group mate back in the Farm? I mean wouldn't that just be worrisome to someone of his mysterious, nosy manner."

"Oh honey, you know he probably got tabs on your ass, he probably got tabs on all our asses. I mean he always knew just too much about every one's business. But it probably pained him to call you," said Blaze. "I mean the man always hated when he came to check on his brother at college and he had to ask one of us where he was."

"Yeah didn't you always keep him as a house mate no matter what happened, because you and all the other folks in the house , thought his existence in your lives as a bit of a confidence boost... until grades time rolled around," said Aithne. "That man was always getting his hands on coke or whatever other stimulant he could get his hands on." 

Blaze laughed, "Remember that time he took Scott's aderall while Frances was on home visit and Sherlock caught a really confusing thrashing because he didn't remember that Scott has an identical twin, but you know he really did put up one hell of a fight. It was too damn funny, I still got the video too, in all its shitty early 2000's camera phone glory."

"I dare you to post it on YouTube," joked Aithne "I mean just the twin factor makes it gold, but the fact that it is Sherlock would probably bring on so many views."

 

"Nah, I bet his brother would give me hell and I don't need that in my life. Still don't really get how he graduated with honors. He was also really fucking good with paying rent, but we over charged him and used the money to pay for things for our less fortunate housemates. I'm so glad he never took up meth, because the smell of that is just super annoying," said Blaze. "Oh g-d I was so glad he never took to making drugs in his home lab. I am just surprised it took so long for him to snap, unfortunately he busted the wrong computer. Definitely going to knock him out should I ever see him again." 

"Well just remember he is actually good at fighting, and you fight like the femme sissy you are," joked Aithne.

"No I'm a big scary leather man whose strength and accuracy rivals even the strongest of the masc4masc assholes out there," said Blaze as he cracked up laughing.

"You got kicked out of the Old Guard society because you refused to stop wearing tutus with your leathers, and to top it off when it came to a formal leather event you paired your leathers with a vintage 1950's cocktail dress," said Aithne, "and with that you seriously tossed your primary partner's credibility as a good Dom down the drain."

"Yeah that is the only regrettable part of that situation, it okay though, Wolfie gave me my punishment for that, my ass wouldn't let me forget about that for weeks after that," said Blaze frowning slightly, but perked right back up, "but sorry they got a fragile sense of masculinity."

"Blaze, you wanker, that group is all about following the rules, they don't tolerate breaking the rules. Also I really don't need to know about the ongoing adventures of your ass," snipped Aithne.

"Why does the whole Old Guard society thing bother you? You identify as a woman and woman aren't allowed to join," Questioned Blaze.

"Because you cock face, it got back to me and some of the fellows are giving me shit over it, and you know how much I hate to be undermined. Also I find it weird that your group finds it acceptable to confront siblings over these matters like it really squicks me out," snarked Aithne.

"Yeah that's kinda gross," said Blaze rolling his eyes. "Does it bother you because while your body cannot feel pain, your ego is ever so easily bruised." 

Aithne shot her brother a look that made him feel really bad, really fast, and he instantly regret the comment. Not that he'll stop making the jokes, her jokes was equally mean at times. 

"Okay honey, what part of the joke upset you? Was it the CIPA part or the ego joke?" Asked Blaze.

Aithne continue staring her brother down and he felt uncomfortable.

Blaze sighed, "But for real though, why the fuck does my actions reflect on you in a setting where it is super awk. Still though you to admit this still isn't as weird as the Holmes siblings, I mean I can just imagine the kind of drama that family has to deal with."

"Yeah, I can only image the family dinners," said Aithne with a smirk on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PrEP is indeed a pill that one can take every day to prevent HIV by 99% but that is if and only if you take it every day. The average drops down to 90% if you are missing 1-2 pills a week. So far the only conversion that happened with a 100% daily adherence participant was someone who had a primary partner who was not taking his meds regularly so his partner's HIV, was one already resistant to PrEP. But yeah I can talk about PrEP all day.


	10. Terms and Conditions...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Holmes Family has a little talk and a lot of drama.

Chapter 10 

John stood in the middle of the sitting room with Rosie's easel hanging out in the front of the fire place. He was waiting for all the individuals of the Holmes family to write down the terms they wanted to use for the family contract that they were planning to use for the next three months.

He looked at the Holmes family, all of whom were sitting in the chairs in front of him.

Sherlock had Rosie napping on his lap with Toby curled up on his feet.

John was amused that Sherlock was still writing but his ledger was just teetering on Rosie's back. John never got tired of seeing Sherlock with Rosie, but adding Toby really made it even better, it isn’t exactly the way he planned it but it is exactly what he wanted out of life, and to top it off it wasn’t boring with Sherlock, there was always something to do or chase. John looked at them with a big goofy smile spread across his face.

Mycroft was sitting on another chair tapping his umbrella against his leg. His terms were written with speed, so he had to wait for the rest of his family to finish. 

Violet wrote her terms out rather quickly as if she already knew what she wanted.

Siger thoughtfully wrote down as many terms he wanted, but was planning to pick the top 3 after he thought out all possibilities. 

"Okay so, I am giving the five minute call now, after that you take the small slips of paper write your top 3 on them and I will just put them all on the board and chuck the scraps into the fire that way the terms are randomized and no one can outright ban one a rule because they are annoyed with a person," declared John.

"How did that work out when it when it was just you and Sherlock trying to figure out the contract for you and Rosie coming back?" Asked Siger a bit amused at that part of the process.

"Dr. Thompson moderated but she tossed in some terms she thought would benefit us, but unless we talked about it, we couldn't be sure if it was a term she put or one of us out," replied Sherlock, he tried reaching for a Ginger Nut, but he didn't want to disturb Rosie, so he tried to bring the table closer using his leg, but Toby interceded by gently tugging the table closer. Sherlock smiled and patted Toby on the head, before grabbing a ginger nut. He pulled out the clicker and eyed it as if contemplating if he could get Toby to do it again.

John started laughing, "Don't you get used to it, that couch already has the starts of an indent in your exact shape." 

"Well at least it is in the place on the couch one should be sitting on, growing up he preferred to be between the cushions, we could search the whole house and not find him, only to sit on the couch and hear him squawk," said Violet with an amused smile. 

"It made things quiet and slowed the info coming in, but it just isn't practical for day to day life," said Sherlock, he finished writing his terms onto the small scraps of paper.

"You wear your coat all the time no matter the weather and you insist on having an absurd amount of comforters on the blanket, I am pretty sure you found a way to squeeze it into your life," said John, "even if you didn't notice." John smiled at Sherlock who was giving him a mildly perplexed look. 

Mycroft chuckled at Sherlock's confusion and he finished writing his terms on the scraps of paper. 

Siger shrugged his shoulders, "it has been a while since I sewn you anything Sherlock, I'll make you one of those weighted blankets, that way your John doesn't have to suffer the absurd amount of comforters on hot nights."

"Ooh Sherlock, doesn't that sound nice, we still have a couple bolts of that fabric your favorite scarf is made from, maybe we can use one of the bolts for that blanket," said Violet as she also wrote her terms onto her scraps of paper. 

John raised his eyebrows at the comment and tucked it away in his mental checklist of things he needed to poke at later with Sherlock, maybe bring Ella in on it. 

"Well that can wait, shall we get on with the negotiations first,” said Sherlock getting a bit jittery, it has been a rather long time since he spent this much time with his parents and Mycroft in the same room and it wasn’t an immediately some life or death situation.

John passed a cup around and all the Holmes placed their scraps of paper into it and handed it back to John. He nodded, "okay each term will get it's own sheet and if we feel a term is too similar to one already up, then we are going to put it down on the same sheet and we will create a new term combining the best of those terms." 

"So may I ask why you are implementing the use of a therapist so much? I mean you both always got on like a house on fire front the very start, I mean you even moved in together the first day you met, but now you have to use therapists to work things out. Why the effort?" Asked Violet.

Sherlock raised an eyebrow at his mother's choice of words, but he looked at John as if silently consulting with John to see whether or not they tell his parents. He knew his parents wouldn't like the answer and would probably be very concerned about it, and would probably have a ton of concern for Rosie on top of it and given their renewed efforts in their kids' lives. Sherlock was concerned that this would cause John and him unneeded issues, given that they were already working on the issues at hand and to have more than likely unhelpful input would make things harder.

Mycroft leaned forward slightly out of his chair and leaned on his umbrella.

John swallowed, took a deep breath, "there were things done and said that didn't need to happen and shouldn't have ever happened. As much as we could just get on with it, being it was what it was, it didn't need to stay that way. If it kept the way it was going it was going to destroy Sherlock and I, and keeping apart hurt just as much. So I went back to therapy to handle my anger issues and PTSD, I was having difficulty dealing with the visits."

"And I decided to return to therapy, much as I started first going to Dr. Thompson as a way of feeling closer to John, I realized that I also just didn't know how to handle things myself. And it just made things easier, I mean it almost makes me wish I actually continued going to the therapists after I got out of residential treatment when I was younger. I can imagine that I might just be a different person now. Ultimately she was the one who did have us slow down a bit in our whole reuniting time period because she was worried that in our rush to find each other again. Rosie would be neglected or we would just create a cycle of blow ups. And we both agreed that if we couldn't navigate it ourselves in a conducive way, we would need an outside party," added Sherlock.

"Well that sounds all good Sherlock but I don't really see why you need to keep up with that now, you both seem fine," said Violet, not realizing the implications of her words. 

Suddenly the side table gets knocked over and there is a loud crash. John jumps forward out of the chair and immediately starts scanning the room, as if searching for something more than the knocked over end table. It was a look more at home on the battle field than in the middle of a flat in London. 

Sherlock flinches slightly, but immediately scoops Rosie in his arms and crouches over as if to shield her from a threat. 

Violet and Siger looked at the two of them with a little bit of alarm and a lot of concern.

Mycroft made an exaggerated effort to straighten himself up, his umbrella was next to the knocked over end table. He hoped that everyone would assume it was an accident but he felt that he needed to show his parents that things weren't alright, and if triggering his brother and John was what it took, he might as well take it. 

Toby already leapt into action, she was pawing at John, who noticed Toby, and was able to find himself being able to ground himself in the moment and he sat back down and started doing some deep breathing. Toby next moved on to pawing at Sherlock, and Sherlock was also able to bring himself back to the moment without further prompting. Rosie was a bit confused, at the situation but relaxed when she saw her father and Sherlock relax. After Toby got a sense of the situation being deescalated, she padded up to Mycroft and just started staring him down. 

Mycroft scoffed at Toby, "it was necessary, we all didn't need Mummy and Father, spreading any doubt of the red for therapy, which makes no sense because Father is friends with a bunch of psychiatric researchers and they both want me to put the other one in a program to get her out of jail."

"She has a name, Mycroft," interrupted Sherlock, "use her name."

Mycroft took a deep breath, "why do I need to do that?"

"Eurus is a human, and I feel that you not using Eurus's name is your way of distancing yourself from all that her being her has brought up," replied Sherlock. "And yes regrettable things happened with her as well, but we can always improve on how we work with this."

"You've really gotten much more annoying since you've started taking your therapy seriously. It's amusing you almost act like this will make you be able to live amongst the goldfish," snapped back Mycroft.

"I. I.. I..." stammered Sherlock. His eyes started flittering back and forth and his fingers started twitching.

John started the stop watch, and pulled a napping Rosie from Sherlock's lap.

Toby started barking and pawing at Sherlock. 

Sherlock took a gasping breath, "I honestly don't see why that matters to you, I feel like I am better functioning because things that were previously beyond my reach is making better sense. I was not a better person because I was shutting out my ability to care. I am a better person now that i am allowing myself to care for other people. I am now able to not have to rely on John to get the human aspect of our cases because I am able to see that part of the case without being clouded by things I am suppressing. Oh hello Toby, why are you barking?"

“Eight Seconds. Sherlock, you were having another from what I can observe absence seizure,” said John. 

"I almost think Mycroft is your trigger," said Siger as he stared down his eldest son. 

“So far I am getting emotional stress, but yeah one could make the argument that Mycroft is a trigger, but it has happened with me and folks we have come by since we have started to keep track of this,” said John with a bit of a frown. He wrote down the record of the seizure on a piece of paper from his pocket. 

“I’d say I’d be more mindful of how I talk to you in the future, but we know that would be a lie, Sherlock,” said Mycroft quite dryly. 

“Well thanks for your honesty, Mycroft,” replied Sherlock. 

“I really did wish you both would try more,” said Violet.

“I am trying..”stammered out Sherlock.

“Your trying isn’t that great…” Muttered Mycroft.

“I am perfectly capable of taking care of…” said Sherlock.

“NO YOU ARE NOT CAPABLE OF TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF! WE HAVE ESTABLISHED THIS TIME AND TIME AGAIN,” roared Mycroft.

John gently picked up Rosie who was still napping, and mouthed “text me if you need me” at Sherlock. 

Sherlock nodded and gave a look that tried to convey, “Do whatever you need to do to feel safe.” Sherlock turned to Mycroft and replied, “I have changed and I think I should give it another try because things have changed…”

“You always say that but we know you can’t really change,” said Mycroft.

“I think I need to have a chance,” replied Sherlock.

“Your rock bottom keeps getting lower,” hissed Mycroft.

“Enough,” said Siger, “Mycroft, give your brother a chance. Sherlock, you try to see where he is coming from and try to talk with him to see where compromises can be made. Violet, you and I are going to have to really examine how we consider what ‘trying’ is in this family. Also nice use of “i” statements.”

Sherlock smirked. 

"You know I don't need this," snapped Mycroft, he really hated loosing control. He stood up and started going towards the door, "also just so you know I did call Dr. Hunter, she'll be available to come in for a consultation but she won't guarantee that Eurus will be entered into the program. And I checked the programs closer to here, but none of them seem to be prepared for a case such as Eurus, I doubt Dr. Hunter is prepared either, but given the history they share and the unique history and tactics of her staff, I think I am reluctantly willing to give the doctor a chance but that is if and only if she is able to prove that Eurus is a candidate for the program. But I emphasize that one of the three of you must be willing to take her in after her stint in the program, but if you cannot she goes back to Sherringford because I don't know anywhere else to place her."

The Holmes parents smiled and in unison said, "thank you for this chance."

Violet added "of course we'll take her after to the program. Where else do you think she is going to go?"

"I'd say with me, but I highly doubt John would allow it and we have an agreement that we are to make decisions of that magnitude together," said Sherlock.

Mycroft nodded, his phone rings, he looked at it, "well duty calls." He left the flat with a flourish.

"Tea same time, same place next week," called out Sherlock.

Mycroft's laughter could be heard.

"I'll take that as a maybe," yelled out Sherlock. He turned around realizing he was stuck alone with his parents, a flurry of curse words in many, many languages flooded his brain for a hot second, he took a deep breath. "So... how are you?"

"Oh we're fine as fine as one can be given the situation," said Violet.

"Quite frankly I am surprised your brother contacted Dr. Hunter we would've thought we would've had to do a lot more arm twisting to get that to happen," said Siger.

"Okay tell me about this Dr. Hunter? What kind of program does the doctor run?" Asked Sherlock.

"She is Dr. Aithne Hunter. She runs a re-entry program call Maureen Russo, essentially they take people who have been in institutions for an extremely long time and gently helps them re-enter society outside of the institutions. You know her twin brother actually, he was your roommate first year of university. And he was in your house share for the rest of university as well. Not sure why they all kept you on because apparently you didn't get along well with any of them," said Violet.

"I paid my rent and probably paid more than everyone else, kept my mess to my room alone, and I was constantly repairing everything in the house. I also have a distinct memory of them all gathered at my door, saying that they were surprised I was still in school and that the main reason they kept me around was that they all felt that no matter how bad things were for them, they still weren't me. But that might have been the drugs talking or they said that because of the drugs," replied Sherlock, he started off with rathe pressured speech, but ended up using a clipped tone. He never talked about his drug use with his parents, but he knew they activated the drug abuse clause of his trust fund, so hasn't been able to draw too much from it. It was annoying at first but ultimately it mean that he needed a flat mate and that's how he got John. 

"Yes well she has a program in San Francisco in the States, and she apparently got along with Eurus that one time we tried to set you all up on a play date. And well we thought maybe we could give it a try," said Siger. "Also the program has an extremely high success rate for what it is, and well it is worth a try."

Sherlock frowned, "that is far away, and The States seems to be in dire straits at the moment, does the facility even have the funding to operate because we all know mental health services tends to be cut first no matter the country." 

"We would be paying full price, but there are quite a few private trusts invested in the program, so they said that no matter what cuts happen, they would be able to keep it funded," said Violet.

"And we can't keep her here?" Asked Sherlock.  
"Your brother was right, there isn't many places that can take her, also it might be a wise idea to have her in an exceedingly different place, that way she can't slip into any old habits or patterns without making an extreme effort to make it happen," said Siger. "I mean we can visit her, maybe rent a house in the area while she is in Program there. I mean family interaction is part of the program, and we can be there the entire time, and you can make time to visit. We have a few friends in that area with access to university labs, maybe they can give you access privileges, that way to you don't get bored. Maybe if John 

"And Mycroft can go fuck off," tossed in Sherlock.

"Well he is going to have to play some part of this, because this is a family wide effort and he needs to see Eurus as a person and not a prisoner or an asset," said Violet. "Anyways it might be good for you as siblings to give it a try to learn about each other together in a new environment."

"That may not be developmentally appropriate for two people in their 30's and one in their 40's," mentioned Sherlock. "I mean unless we are doing this over a casket or something, that's the point where siblings try to reunite right?"

"Yeah judging by the report of what happened over at Sherringford, I am sure you had some sibling relationship development over a coffin," said Violet smirking into her cup of tea.

Sherlock stared at his mother, shocked and open mouthed for a second. Toby nudged Sherlock and he snapped back to the moment, "nice to see you have a sense of humor, mummy." 

"Don't let Mycroft hear that one, he never really could take a joke," replied Violet.

"But when he jokes he is rather cutting," added Siger.


	11. Shut Up and Drive or Talk and Walk.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mycroft has a conversation in a car while John has a conversation in the park.

Chapter 11

Mycroft was striding his way out of 221 Baker Street, when he literally tripped over John and Rosie who was sitting on the front step. Mycroft tripped and was sprawled out on the bottom of the front step, he scrambled to get on his feet.

"Can you maybe try to watch where you are going?" Said John bouncing a scared Rosie on his knee to calm her down from the suddenly scare.

"Maybe you shouldn't sit in such a precarious spot," snapped back Mycroft. "Also nice words back there, they sounded exactly like one would say after finishing a program and now uses the program as a script when trying to construct acceptable answers for awkward situations in life. I don't know if you are being sincere with those words or are just parroting stuff so as to cover up what you have done to my brother, but know this. If you hurt my brother ever again, I will make you disappear so thoroughly that no one will ever find you. But don't worry Rosie will be fine, I'll stonewall whoever other than Sherlock tries for custody so hard they would need to have an entire team of lawyers on retainer every hour of every day to even dream of getting Rosie before she becomes of age, because while I am sure Sherlock can eventually learn live without you, I think loosing Rosie would kill him. But don't worry, I'll steer him in the right way to ensure she gets the best of care, you already know what our parents offered, so it isn't an empty promise, it's a guarantee. Rosie will want for nothing and have the best provided for her.”

"Is this your 'you break his heart, I break your heart speech,' because I think you made that clear when we first met," replied John. "Also I learned from this experience and I do my best to avoid what sets me off, and that is why I am just going to try and walk away now, before things escalate. I also don't think Sherlock likes being left alone with your parents. You don't have to trust me, but you are going to have to trust Sherlock, we all are."

"I really wish you had that faith in him, five years ago," replied Mycroft.

"Fuck off," snapped John, as he adjusted his hold on Rosie as he stood up, and went inside.

Mycroft took a deep breath and took some strides to the car waiting for him. "Anthea, I do hate not having all the info, and as much as I hate doing legwork, I think I am going to have to do it. Can you give me all the info you possibly have on Dr. Ella Thompson? In particular I need to know where she is holding her case notes, because she doesn't electronically hold her case notes. She only uses ICD codes for entering it into billing. I need more info than that."

Anthea sighed "I rather you not, but if it makes you feel better, I'll see what I can do about that."

"Well I do hate acting without all the info," snapped back Mycroft.

"What kind of action are you planning to take Mycroft and to what end?" Asked Anthea, concerned for her boss, whom she at times thought of as a friend, not that she wanted to admit that to anyone. And she would be fully capable of killing anyone who found out.

"I just want to make sure my brother is going to be okay with this new development in his life, he doesn't need more suffering. He really deserves someone who loves him for him and not some idealized version of him and doesn't make him flinch at sudden movements," said Mycroft. "I just want to see what Dr. Thompson is thinking with all of this and what did she see when she decided to help them navigating being together. I am not going to get it out of them, that's for sure."

"You purposely triggered John, so as to trigger Sherlock, I almost feel like you are the one who needs to slow down in this moment. Remember last week when Sherlock asked to put down some boundaries on just how involved you can be in observing him. You violating his privacy in terms of accessing his case notes is worse than just not backing down when he asked, this is crossing a boundary that doesn't need to be crossed. It isn’t even a matter of respecting your brother at this point it has become a matter of respecting the law,” said Anthea, even more worried for her boss. She hoped he would at least see this as some what wrong. 

"If it keeps him safe, I say the boundaries need not be set," replied Mycroft.

"Well that's worrisome, I'll get her info if it really bothers you, but know anything you do with that info is going to be on you," responded Anthea. "Ella treats not just your brother and John, she sees many of our agents as well, so you won't be crossing the boundaries of your brother, you'll be crossing the line with many of the people who have served us and suffered for doing so. You have to at least give them a shred of some respect for their privacy." 

"Don't worry I can always keep a secret," replied Mycroft, he opened the door of the car and went into his house.

Anthea sighed, "most secrets yes, big ones not so much."

"So are you going to give him the info?" Asked the driver with a smirk.

"Oh g-d Danny, I don't want to," said Anthea visibly agitated at the idea of it.

"Yeah I wouldn't want him having the info either, he has a delightful skill at picking apart people and ruining them," said Danny the driver.

"Ella is someone I wouldn't want ruined," said Anthea glaring at Mycroft's house.

"Of course, you don't," replied Danny who was smirking.

“Just drive me home, danny” snapped Anthea.

“Maybe we can make things easier and just get Mycroft back into the car, that way he can meet Ella in person. Save yourself the paperwork,” joked Danny.

“Danny, if you don’t stop I am going to your fan-fiction.net account and forward your most dreadful stuff to the entire office,” snapped Anthea. “And don’t deny it I’ve seen it all, you got some weird taste, nothing illegal, but oh boy do you have some weird tastes,” said Anthea trying to stay straight faced, but a slight smirk was appearing. 

“Okay, i’ll stop,” said Danny. “But please don’t do that, 

Meanwhile John was inside of the first floor of 221Baker Street. He didn't go straight up to flat B, and he felt bad for leaving Sherlock alone with his parents, given that he didn't want to be alone with them in the first place but he felt like he wasn't ready to step back in yet. He was sure it was probably calmer now that Mycroft left, but he wasn't sure why Sherlock didn't like being alone with them in the first place. He contemplated just take Rosie out for a longer walk but he realized that he didn't have any gear for taking Rosie out longer, and he also thought of leaving Rosie with Mrs. Hudson while he went for a walk. 

He just wasn't sure if he was ready to go back up there. He knew that Mycroft had every right to be wary of him, but he felt like at this point it shouldn't be an issue because he was mindful of his actions and he now knew to get himself out of situations that set him off. There was risks, and more than one person has given them warnings about continuing on as friends at first, but they really thought they were to better together. At least he thought they were better together than apart, he couldn't speak on Sherlock's behalf. He regret what happened that day in the morgue with the Smith incident, and he regret the amount of times he hit Sherlock on the day of his return. He at the time thought it was justified and he knew Sherlock thought that as well, but they knew better. He was worried that he would slip up, and it made him scared because messing up now meant messing up so much more. 

John knew Sherlock cared for Rosie, and it was to the point that Rosie spent more time with Sherlock than he did, he was the one doing most of the teaching Rosie how to walk and talk and eat and he even did the potty training. Sherlock tackled all of those tasks the same ways he tackled any case, with an absurd amount of focus and care. He knew ruining things with Sherlock, meant ruining things for Rosie. He didn't want that, especially because his entire support system for Rosie came from people he knew because of Sherlock. He couldn't jeopardize that. He hated how Mycroft rattled them so easily just by knocking over an end table.

He sighed and thought about going up and at least just getting a bag and jacket for Rosie, but he couldn't even make it halfway up the steps before feeling that prickling on the back of his neck that screamed it was time to fight or flight or freeze. He stopped and went back down to the bottom step. He knocked on Mrs. Hudson's door.

"Oh hello John, how are things going on up there? It was sounding a bit intense, are things doing better? I actually heard some laughter, and not the awkward kind either," said Mrs. Hudson, the smell of biscuits baking coming through the open door.

"I'm sorry and I hate that I keep doing this, but can I leave Rosie with you for an hour, I just need to get out for a walk," asked John trying hard to keep a tone that wouldn't raise much alarm.

"Oh John, it is never a problem to have Rosie here, if I am here I can take her in any time, I mean only for emergencies, otherwise date nights you are going to have to pre schedule that with me," replied Mrs. Hudson, taking Rosie from John's arms.

"Thank you very much," said John relieved.

He got out of the building and started walking in the direction of a nearby park. He walked to the park and started walking in meandering circles focusing on every step and regulating his breathing. It was moments like this where he regrets just how easy it is to be set off, how could something so simple help with such a complex emotion.

"Hey John!" Called out a random voice.

John looked up it was Paul, one of the men from his PTSD support group. "Hey Paul."

"I'd ask how you are doing but you obviously look like you are working through something," said Paul. "Do you want to talk about it? I mean, mind you, I am here working through my own shit. So really I am being selfish in this offer because I want to talk to someone, and my therapist visit isn't for another 2 days." Paul shrugged his shoulders and smiled at John. "You want to go first or can i?"

"You can, I just saw my therapist this morning," said John.

"Jesus Christ, how bad was the visit?" Asked Paul, his voice full of concern. 

"No it was a good one, it was a couple's appointment, and well we thought it would be a good idea to invite his parents over for tea, and the brother showed up and it went to shit, I need a drink," said John. 

Paul laughed, "we are most certainly avoiding alcohol, but there is a fancy coffee shop around the corner that gives people trying to stay sober free coffee, so let's get some free 7£ coffee. Yeah I've had the urge to drink all day, let's put it this way, I've have been wandering this park long enough to be stopped by multiple guys thinking I am cruising."

"Is that still a thing?" Said John laughing, "I mean have these folks found out that Apps are a thing." 

"I don't know it seems to have a certain aged charm to it," said Paul trying to keep a straight face. "Also not going to lie, I did accept an offer, thought it would take off the edge."

John shrugged, "I'm not going to judge, we've all done stupid shit when it comes to sex."

"I know but it just makes it worse for me, sex tends to come with drinking for me. And given that I already had a craving, getting a blow job out in the bushes by some silver fox looking fellow, really didn't help," said Paul frustrated. "Still he was fucking sexy as hell, like total dad bod but his hair just really made it work, like you could look at him and think, yes that man will take good care of me. And oh he took such good care of me." He laughed, "maybe I should've gotten his number, the man had a chip keychain so I am just going to assume he is also working on sobriety and I imagine sober friends with benefits would be an excellent thing. Yeah I was triggered today by the stupidest thing."

"No such thing as a weird trigger in my opinion," replied John, he sincerely believed that.

"I opened the newspaper, which is something I do every morning, and I guess my brain decided that the pictures in the paper was showing the ruins of places I've protected and even through the label says it was somewhere else I can't bring myself to believe it," said Paul, he buried his face in his hands. "How stupid was that?"

John sighed, "that's not stupid, trauma affects us all differently.”

"What set you off?" Inquired paul, "I mean if you don't mind me asking."

"My partner's big brother knocked over an end table while his parents where asking us why we utilized so much therapy. He knocked it over with the specific reason of triggering me, so as to trigger him," said John.

"What a fucking prolapsed asshole!" Exclaimed paul, "I can go punch him for you if you want. I mean he'd never know what hit him."

"Oh but he would, and you would be in a world of trouble that you wouldn't even know existed," said John, holding a bit of a laugh. "I mean I don't know what I can do to help with what set you off today."

"Actually you know what, there is something you can do, but don't laugh," said Paul.

"I promise I won't laugh," said John.

"Help me find someone to take this off my hands," said Paul as he took his engineering bag off his back and opened it. It was filled with an impressive amount of booze. "I don't know I kind of went into a bit of zombie mode and I bought the alcohol while on it. And I am having hard time throwing it away."

"Yeah, um... that is a bit funny, but yeah I can help," said John, he took the bag from Paul and looked around the park and spotted a group of young men playing football while some of their friends sat to the side drinking some beers. John sighed and walked over to them, "hey so my friend over there trying to stay sober but he had a bit of a rough start today and bought some booze but he changed his mind of breaking sobriety, basically do you want these, because well he doesn't want them but would also feel shit for tossing it down the drain." He held up some of the bottles while at the same time keeping an eye open for police because public drinking could always be a bit troublesome depending on the responding officer.

"Yeah sure we can always have more," one of them grabs a bottle, "holy shit, this is some quality stuff." He overturns the bottle of scotch, "we'll drink to your good health and further success in keeping sober." The group of young men laugh.

John smile and nodded, he went back to Paul, "okay that seems to be solved, any other things you need Paul?"

"Nothing at all, I think I actually feel a lot better. Maybe I can make it back home," said Paul. "How do you do it anyways?"

John looked at Paul, "do what?"

"How are you and your partner still together after all that has happened? I mean I've tried to stay with my boyfriend but he called it quits after I attacked him when he surprised me in bed. I mean it was my birthday and I know before I was shipped out he would love to surprise me in bed, but after I came back being surprised like that just kicked in a response, I thought I was getting attacked in my sleep," said Paul, sounding very distraught. He was fighting back tears. "I mean yes I know now how to avoid things from going that far. And I understand why he isn't going to take me back, but that doesn't stop me from missing him. I just miss him, and it is hard to think of a life where I can go back to having a romantic partner. I mean I think I miss that, but really I think I just miss him and everything that came with him, I mean I don't have any more friends since it happened, I mean the weekly visits to the group is my only time where I am not alone. I mean it doesn't help that I mainly work freelance and work at home, I don't even know if I can put into practice all we learned from group because I don't really have anyone to practice it on."

John sighed, "sorry Paul I don't even got the answer for that, I mean from what I've seen and what I have been told, I was the first friend Sherlock ever had in his adult life. And at times I have to wonder why he is still around, I mean we both have things we need to work on, and we work on those things together, that's the only way I think this has been able to work. I don't have any magic formula, but if I did I would tell you."

Paul laughed, "if there was some magic solution that would be nice, but it was nice talking to you. It's getting dark, I probably should head back."

John nodded, "yeah I probably should head back too. Also Paul, don't be afraid to call me, I mean we all got each other's numbers." 

Paul nodded, "thanks I'll consider doing that. Bye John."

John waved at Paul, "bye Paul, but yes do call when you need someone okay." John started walking to 221 Baker Street. He opened the door, and knocked on Mrs. hudson's door, "hi Mrs. Hudson thanks for taking care of Rosie." He said when Mrs. Hudson opened the door.

"Hello John, Rosie is already upstairs with Sherlock, he came looking for you, but when I told him what was going on, he just took Rosie back up to your flat," replied Mrs. Hudson.

John nodded and said, "thank you anyways." He went upstairs and opened the door to see Sherlock playing with Rosie and Toby rolling a ball between the three of them, while his parents looked at him proudly. John smiled, "hey Sherlock I'm back, sorry for leaving like that. How is Rosie?” 

Sherlock looked up at John and smiled, “Rosie doing just fine, she already had dinner, and we’re just playing with her to tire her out for the night. She did have a bit of an exciting day. How are you doing?”

John shrugged his shoulders, “I am doing a lot better, the walk helped, I also bumped into one of the guys from group, and we talked so that really helped.” John sat down on the floor with Sherlock and Rosie and Sherlock added John to the rotation of the ball. “How are you doing Sherlock?”

"I am doing well and even more so now that I know where you are," Sherlock said as he leaned forward to gently kiss John's cheek. "I had a bit of a talk with my parents, a lot of things are no longer a secret it was fascinating. I hope you don't mind if they start making a bit more regular visits. Maybe we can finally get down to finishing those terms as a group, maybe Mycroft could regain his composure with in the next week and join us." Sherlock laughed.

John nodded, "sure that would be absolutely fine, just tell me when you plan for it Sherlock."

Violet and Siger nodded their heads enthusiastically, and Violet replied, "okay Sherlock darling, just call us or text us when you next want us to come over, we will be in the city for the next couple of weeks because we have some business in the city that we need to take care of."

Sherlock nodded in acknowledgment.

"Also Sherlock and John, it is getting late, and we would hate to keep you all from doing what you need to do to settle down for the night, so we’ll be going. But if you ever need to have another babysitter in the rotation we are always available," added Siger with a smile on his face. "Also sorry about earlier, neither my wife nor I knew how things were between our sons, so we probably misspoke and only escalated things, but know that we are trying to be better parents and more aware of how things are."

"There really isn't anything to apologize for," said John, "I know how things can be with family, but either way thanks for the apology."

Sherlock's parents waited by the door, John and Sherlock got up with Sherlock carrying Rosie and met them at the door. "Would it be okay to hug all of you before we leave?" Asked Violet.

Sherlock and John looked surprised at the request but hugged Sherlock's parents. When they pulled away from they were surprised to see Violet crying.

"I never could've hoped things for you could turn out this way. It isn't perfect but it is more than we ever expected for you, Sherlock. You used to be so lonely, but look at you, you got people who love you and are willing to work with you and on themselves to make it work. Sherlock I really am happy for you and proud of what you have achieved," said Violet.

"Thanks mummy, have a good night," said Sherlock.


	12. Baths, Babies, and Bumping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a long day, Sherlock and John have some conversations while getting Rosie ready for the night, and one thing leads to another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well yeah there'll be some soft core smut in this chapter. I mean in my opinion soft core, I don't know what other's think.

Chapter 12

John and Sherlock watched as Sherlock's parents got in a cab and drove away.

"John, be honest, are you really feeling better?" Said Sherlock. "I know it was a long day and definitely got stressful towards the end there." He knew he personally hated being asked the same question over and over, but he just wanted to be sure that John was doing fine.

"Yes Sherlock, I am doing perfectly fine, the walk helped calm me down and talking with Paul also helped. How about you, are you really doing fine? replied John, he raised a hand which ghosted over Sherlock's shoulder.

Sherlock reached out for John's hand and closed the distance. "John I am doing absolutely fine and I really am glad you came back. Just so you know you can always talk to me, but I am not going to make a fool of myself by thinking I am going to be the one you can turn to for everything you want to talk about, but know that I really do care about you. I am proud of the fact that you are able to reach out to the other people." He turned his head and kissed John's hand and also kissed Rosie on the top of her head as she nestled in closer to Sherlock. "Well we might as well get little Watson ready for bed."

John smiled, "yes let's get her ready for bed." 

Sherlock carried Rosie to the bathroom, and started running the bath.

John grabbed a towel and placed it in the drier to make it all warm and toasty. He went into Rosie's room and put away some of the spare toys lying on the floor. He brought out a pair of pajamas and brought it back to the bathroom, grabbing the warmed towel on the way. He walked into the bathroom to see that the bathtub was painted in many different colors. He laughed because Sherlock for the past couple of weeks was trying to figure out a way to make Rosie like baths, and this seemed to be his most outlandish effort yet. “Sherlock I don’t think baths are supposed to make kids more dirty.”

Rosie was laughing as she smeared the different colors on the wall.

Sherlock who removed his button up shirt before getting Rosie into the tub was just in his trousers and undershirt was giving the distracted child a bath. He turned around and smiled at John, “oh don’t worry i’ve tested out the recipe, it doesn’t stain the tub.”

“Okay but did you test it on blond hair?” replied John as he pointed to Rosie’s head which was now covered in the bath tub paint. “As a kid, Harry dyed my hair with food coloring for an experiment, and all those mummy blogs you have been reading seems to use food coloring for the pigments for their recipes.”

Sherlock scowled at John, “I did not factor that in.” Sherlock filled a pail with clean water and gently poured it over Rosie’s head, revealing a pastel rainbow disaster upon what used to be blond hair. “Oh… I’m sorry, but you have to admit she looks quite trendy.” Sherlock started laughing. “She will be the absolute talk of the playground tomorrow.”

John laughed, “yes indeed she does look trendy, but I have a feeling the other parents are going to judge us.”

Sherlock continued laughing, “it’s okay the mums at the playground are already judging us, apparently I am too much and too little at the exact same time, they never specify what thought. But just wait and see once little Watson goes to school, I'll have a whole set of skills that will make all the chatty mums' kids jealous of little Watson." Sherlock smiled and tossed some rubber toys into the tub, and showed Rosie how to fill the toys with water so as to spray away the bathtub paint, which came off the wall with no trouble.

John laughed because while the tub was free of any color, the multiple rinsing of Rosie's hair only proved that the color was going to be there for quite some time. “I think you already have a set of skills that kids will think is cool, I don’t think you have to build a whole set of new ones. Yet I have to admit I like the hair color."

"Say that now but you watch we're going to get a phone call someday saying she is violating school dress code and we are going to be stuck with an emergency color removal just to keep her on track for school. Of course kids think what I do is cool, they are kids, and as far as it goes I think most adults think I am just being annoying.” replied Sherlock, he said with a slight smile. 

John sat on the floor next to Sherlock, "well most adults don't know what they are missing out on. Your set of skills are a set of skills, no one else has and you make it look easy, even when you are probably struggling, because even then we are all just trying to keep up."

Sherlock cracked a small smile.

John continued, "You really are thinking about the long haul with us aren't you?”

"Of course I am, but only if you want me to. I mean I am not exactly parenting material, but I really love taking care of Rosie. It's like...I just really like taking care of Rosie and I can't really see myself with anyone but you, John. I love you and even with all we have been through I still love you. I may not be that affectionate or even that receptive to the love that comes my way. I do know that I love you. I mean I never dreamed that anyone could love me, so this is more than I ever expected for myself. I mean I don’t know how long this can happen, but I am going to enjoy for as long as I possibly can,” said Sherlock as he wrapped Rosie up in a towel and carried her out of the tub. 

John looked at Sherlock, “Sherlock, I am in the long haul for this if you are.” He handed Sherlock Rosie’s pajamas. “And I know you have a hard time believing this is even happening, but know that I do love you, and I will keep working to make sure you can be sure that this is actually happening and will keep happening.” He helped Sherlock get Rosie into her pajamas.

“I love you, John,” said Sherlock with a smile. He picked up Rosie and carried her to her toddler bed. “And I absolutely love you too Rosie, I hope you don’t ever find yourself doubting that." He gave her a tight hug before putting her into her bed. Sherlock went over to the bookshelf and pulled out a few books and held them up to Rosie. 

"That!" Cried out Rosie pointing to "And Tango Makes Three."

Sherlock scowled, "how does this always end up in the rotation? I purposely put the books in an order so that when I grab them in theory we won't have to tell the same story every day for a week. But this one keeps jumping it's place in line. I really hate saying pengwing...pengweens... penguins." He sighed.

Rosie laughed, and John stifled a giggle himself.

"John maybe you should give reading the night time story a try?" Suggested Sherlock. "You know for every time this book or any of the ones involving thiders. Thspiders... spiders are chosen." 

Rosie laughed some more and huffed out, "No daddy. Sherlock."

"Maybe Daddy would like to trying to read the stories," bargained Sherlock.

"You better," said Rosie, wiggling in her pajamas on her toddler bed. 

John interceded, "Rosie dear, sometimes we need to take turns, and today is my turn."

Rosie frowned at John, “oh-kay.”

Sherlock sighed a breath of relief, he really hated saying the word “penguin” and "spider" was the bane of existence when it came to story time.   
John started reading the story, he couldn't really do the voices Sherlock did and Sherlock did have a surprising amount of them, he guessed for someone who said they were excellent at disguises, he really wasn’t, half of the disguises he has witnessed were all on the fly and really did rely on just the voices, he wasn’t sure if they were even decent to enough to full anyone. He remembered when Sherlock first came back and he had that stupid eyeliner mustache, he smiled as he continued reading the story to Rosie, she looked a lot more sleepier than usual. He also felt a twinge of guilt because upon remembering the eyeliner mustache, he also remembered that one of his reactions to the miracle that was Sherlock coming back was punching him multiple times. He continued reading the story to Rosie, she usually asked for more than one story, maybe today was rather tiresome for her, it was a rather long day now that he thought of it, but he also had a feeling that there was a very real possibility that Rosie just didn’t like him reading. He finished the story, and looked at Rosie who was already sleeping. John looked at Sherlock, who stared back. They both took turns gently kissing her head and they both gently padded their way out of her room, Rosie rarely ever slept this early. 

Sherlock bounded down the steps faster than John, and as john got closer to the bottom he saw sherlock darting out the front door. John was a bit confused, he really wanted to spend some time with Sherlock. John sat on the sofa a bit perplexed at what just happened, with a twinge of feeling rejected kicking in. But the door opened, and Toby came running in along with Sherlock.

“Sorry, John, just didn’t want to get interrupted,” he said as he tossed little bagging into the garbage and washed his hands in the kitchen sink. He turned and smiled at John. “We had quite the day didn’t we?”

John laughed, “Yes we did, we had our first couple’s therapy session, we got a dog, we started training with our service dog, we came across one of your old school mates, and that if we just happened to hold things off till June, we get a huge windfall, and well we had tea with your parents and your brother. To top it off, we are all coming to realize that you may be having seizures, which reminds me, I think we need to get you a referral to a neurologist for that. It really isn’t my area of specialties and I’d rather you have someone who can help you the best in that area. But either way that was a lot more times spent with other people than usual and a lot of info to take in as well.” John sighed, “I am just glad we are here together, it isn’t always going to be easy, but it is what it is.”

Sherlock nodded, “I’m glad we are together too, but what this is, is more than I was expecting out of my life.” He got on the sofa next to John and laid his head on John’s lap, while raising his legs on the couch.

John sucked in a deep breath, this was a new position for Sherlock, and he was a bit shocked. He smiled down at Sherlock who was staring up at John. “Would it be okay if I touch your hair?” 

Sherlock swallowed and nodded his head, “yes John, that would be nice.” He closed his eyes and groaned when John started running his fingers through Sherlock’s dark wavy hair.

John closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he knew that Sherlock wasn’t doing it on purpose, but his proximity to his cock and his groaning was making him feel feelings he trying to crush at the moment, because just earlier that day physical intimacy was definitely one of those topics on the table for therapy. He tried to will away the slowly developing stiffness, he hoped Sherlock couldn’t feel it. Sherlock wiggled a bit more in John’s lap, and the movement made John gasp, because it felt really good. He forced himself to look down at Sherlock.

Sherlock looked al little bit taken aback, as he realized the effect this might be playing on John, “I’m sorry, I can just um… move if you want.” 

John shook his head, “No Sherlock, it’s fine I just need to get a better grip on myself.” He shuddered, realizing the double entendre in that phrase. “I mean not a better grip on myself…I just need to control myself better, I mean I know you don’t want that now, but I don’t want to scare you off either, because again, I am here for long haul.”

Sherlock nodded and sat back up on the couch, John sighed already missing Sherlock presence. “John, I’m okay if you feel the need to get your fulfillment elsewhere, and I am working on it, I want to share that part with you eventually.”

John nodded in acknowledgement of Sherlock’s words, his throat suddenly getting dry, “I don’t need to do that, I don’t want anyone else, I want to help you get to whatever you want out of this, and I wasn’t lying earlier. I’d rather go there rest of my life with out sex, if it means I get to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Sherlock smiled at John and stood up in front of him, “Thank you John, and I really do want to try getting to some level of physical intimacy with you. Uh… Can I try something?”

John looked at Sherlock, unsure of what Sherlock was planning, “Depends on what you want to try,” he said with a small laugh.  
Sherlock smiled and straddled John’s lap, “is this okay?”

John took a deep breath at the sudden contact, much more intense than what he experienced earlier with Sherlock just resting his head on his lap. A slight blush developed on his face, but he could feel his blood flow going elsewhere. “Yes sherlock, that is more than okay.” John leaned back fully into the sofa, and stared at Sherlock, he was panting, as Sherlock fought very hard to keep his balance over John, because the sofa was a lumpy and at times hard to keep your bearings on, he could tell Sherlock was trying very hard to not put his full weight on John. “How about this Sherlock, instead of asking permission, you just wait till I say no? Just fair warning, I don’t like having my arms pinned to my back or my wrists being pinned over my head. I won’t do anything but just lean back and let you do what you want, but if you want me to do something you can either just ask verbally or place my hands where you want them.”

Sherlock nodded, “That sounds like a good idea.” He put his full weight onto John and ground down on his lap, Sherlock could feel John arousal, and it didn’t bother him, if anything it encouraged him a bit more. He continued grinding into john and started kissing him, starting off with little pecks on the lips, but starting to experiment with longer kisses where he stroked his tongue across John’s lips. 

John closed his eyes, and enjoyed Sherlock’s efforts, sure they enjoyed sharing a bed and holding each other, but this was something all together new, and John was enjoying himself, he hoped Sherlock was enjoying himself. He gently parted his lips, in hopes that Sherlock would get the hint. He smiled against sherlock’s mouth, and enjoyed the fact that Sherlock did indeed get the hint.

The kiss wasn’t in anyway graceful, and John smiled because this reminded him of a kiss he shared with one of the girls from the field hockey team. He wasn’t expecting it, but she tackled him after his rugby practice, asked him to go with her to the spring dance, and she suddenly went shy for beat, but followed up with a sloppy kiss that took his breath away. All his rugby mates made fun of him for the rest of the season after that, but it was still a damn good kiss.

He chuckled against Sherlock’s mouth and took a more active role in the kissing, he swept his tongue against Sherlock’s who took a sharp breath, when it first happened, but Sherlock enjoyed it, so Sherlock tried it as well timing it with grinding further into John’s crotch. John who was now sporting an incredibly hard cock, was enjoying Sherlock’s efforts. He wished for more, but at the same time he enjoyed everything given to him so far. Sherlock grabbed John’s hands and laid them on his hips, John grabbed on this hips and held Sherlock firmly in his lap, John started thrusting his trouser covered erection against Sherlock’s fully clothed ass. He didn’t do something like this in years, and it made him feel young, but Sherlock wasn’t exactly stopping him. He felt the pressure building up, and soon he was quickly approaching orgasm. He was moaning against Sherlock’s mouth, Sherlock was still sloppily kissing John, but now meeting John’s thrusts which made John moan even more. Suddenly Sherlock tightly gripped John’s hair pulling his head back, and revealing John neck. Sherlock pulled away from the kiss and buried his face into John’s neck, changing between gentle kisses and playful nips, with occasional long strokes with his tongue. John felt even more pressure building up and he was now on the very edge of an orgasm. Sherlock suddenly pulled back, John was absolutely breathless and missing the contact, when just as suddenly as sherlock pulled off, Sherlock delivered a sharp bite into the part of the neck where it meets the shoulder, John moaned and thrashed as he felt his orgasm hit him. John opened his eyes and caught his breath, and saw Sherlock looking down at him with a look on his face as if he was absolutely satisfied with himself. 

Sherlock rolled off John and sat next to him on the sofa, he held out his hand which John took into his. John rested his head on Sherlock’s shoulder, and Sherlock leaned his head on top of John’s head. They were both smiling. Sherlock turned to John, “So was that okay?”

“You know bloody well it was more than okay,” said John, “also I won’t be opposed to doing that again, if you want to do it again in the future.” 

Sherlock smiled, “Yes I will probably want to do that again in the future.” 

“Oh g-d I feel like such a teenager, I haven’t cum in my pants since I was 17. But how about you?” John noted that Sherlock was still sporting a bit of boner himself, “I can help you with that if you want.”

Sherlock laughed, “John don’t laugh, but I deleted anything on how to deal with this outside of mentally willing it away.”

John nodded, “That does sound like something you would do. Well do you want to try doing something about it?”

Sherlock turned beet red not sure of what to do in the situation. 

“I mean I don’t have to touch you, maybe I can tell you what to do?” asked John gently.

Sherlock nodded, “Yes, I think I want to try that.”

“Again Sherlock, just remember you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do and we can stop at any time. Sherlock, you are in control of this okay,” said John trying to make his voice sound full of assurance. 

“Yup,” said sherlock with a slight Pop to the P.

“Sherlock I want you to stroke yourself through your trousers, start with your inner thighs, and when you feel ready for it, I want you to stroke your cock," said John reaching down and pulling out the authoritative voice he used use back in the Army.

Sherlock leaned back and spread his legs starting to gently touch himself through his trousers. He would occasionally touch his cock and gently grip it, he was panting and bucking in the air as he did it.

John smiled, and using the same voice, "good, and if you at up for it I want you to unzip you trousers and to start feeling yourself through you underwear."

Sherlock nodded and started to struggle with his belt and zipper, but eventually he got it. His tried to stroke himself through his pants and he gasped, and pulled his hand away it was too sensitive. 

John smiled, "I think you should give that another go."

Sherlock shuddered, and nodded and gave himself another tentative stroke, which caused his hips to thrust up again this time tilting the sofa, but it slammed back down.

John chuckled, "looks like we are going to have to move this to where you are lying down and not going to topple us over. But I do love your enthusiasm."

Sherlock smiled but also looked slightly embarrassed.

John stood up and offered Sherlock his hand, they both were a bit awkward in their steps to the bed room, given that John was starting to deal with the discomfort that is drying cum in one's underwear, and Sherlock was trying to walk without something setting off his overly sensitive lower regions. Sherlock got into the bed in a manner that lacked his usual grace, and John sat on the edge of the bed and watched Sherlock. 

Sherlock was flopped over on his stomach taking in the feelings caused by his cock being pinned between him and the bed and he gave a tentative thrust, which he enjoyed it wasn't a sensation that overwhelmed one part or another but was rather even in pressure. It was closer to his earlier activities with John. 

"Do you like that Sherlock?" Asked John.

Sherlock nodded against the sheets.

"I want to hear you say it," said John, as he enjoyed the view that was Sherlock rutting against the sheets of their bed.

"Yes, John, I like it! Can you touch me please? Maybe just start with my hair and shoulders," said Sherlock gasping as he continued thrusting against the sheets.

"Oh g-d yes," said John as he started running his fingers through Sherlock's hair, occasionally gently tugging, he would occasionally run some gentle strokes down Sherlock's neck and would apply gentle pressure to his shoulders. John smiled as Sherlock moaned louder and threw his head back John could sense that Sherlock was struggling with being on the edge of an orgasm. "It's okay Sherlock, just let yourself relax and enjoy the feeling." He slowly leaned over Sherlock and kissed his shoulder and pulled at the collar of Sherlock's shirt so that he could kiss his neck as well. 

Sherlock was making small gasps and looking more and more tense, with each thrust against the sheets. 

John leaned over and kissed Sherlock on the mouth, gently sweeping his tongue over Sherlock's lips. 

Sherlock deepened the kiss, moaning into John's mouth, he wondered how it would feel like to run his tongue across other parts of John's body and allowing John to do the same. He suddenly tensed up and with a loud moan he came. He rolled over and immediately felt the discomfort of the air hitting the wet spot on his pants. 

John looked down at the panting Sherlock, "how was it?" He said with a smile.

"That was a bit good," said Sherlock. "I also feel like I need a shower."

"That is a valid feeling," said John adjusting his rather uncomfortable pants. 

"Well I am not exactly sure how much further I should be pushing this whole new experiences thing for today, but would you like to join me in the bath?" Said Sherlock, giving John a hopeful look.

John stared at Sherlock slightly taken aback, "Oh g-d yes," John got up and started heading to the bath room. He turned on the faucet, started running a hot bath, he poured a ridiculous amount of bubbles, and got in. There was a thick layer covering the surface. 

Sherlock came in shortly afterwards and looked at John in the bath. He opened his mouth and paused, "John don't get angry but I just realized you are naked under that layer of bubbles, and my mind did just indeed hit the new things quota for the day."

John laughed, "Sherlock, I am not mad, but that really can't be comfortable." He tilted his head in the direction of the quickly drying spot on Sherlock's pants. 

Sherlock shifted awkwardly and nodded "yes it really isn't that comfortable. And I am sorry for getting your hopes up."

"Sherlock there isn't anything to worry about," said John looking at Sherlock trying to make him feel that there was indeed nothing to worry about. "How about you take a quick step outside and I'll just exit rinse off real fast and get out so that you can have the bath. I can even drain it and run you a new bath."

"Actually John I was wondering if I could just go in with my pants on," said Sherlock with a slight grin.

"To me that feels weird but I am not going to stop you," said John with a large smile spreading across his face.

Sherlock smiled as he stripped off all his clothes but his underwear and slipped into the bath between John's legs. "It was a long day, but you have to admit it was a good one." 

John laughed, "oh it had's it's ups and downs but yes I have to admit it was a pretty good day." He pressed a kiss into the back of Sherlock's neck.

Sherlock leaned back into John's embrace. "But seriously John it was a good day, and thanks for putting up with the antics of my family."

John smiled and kissed Sherlock's shoulder, "thanks for putting up with my moods and being such a good parent for Rosie." 

Sherlock smiled he didn't really expect himself to ever experience this level of intimacy and to have these sorts of bonds but here he was and he felt that he really couldn't go back to before all this happened.


	13. Follies and Foils

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mycroft has a plan which is shaky at best and wager is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to lie, I really don't know much about fencing other than in high school I used to sit in on a class because the girl I really liked was on the team. Boxing and cane fighting was the things I was trained in but like technique is not my strong point.

Chapter 13

"I hope you won't be to angry at this news, but my boss is suddenly interested in your progress and case notes," said Andrea who at work went by Anthea as she looked across the table at her wife who was sitting down and eating some take out while going over her notebook as she translated her day notes to billing codes so that she could get paid for her work. 

"Andrea, your boss has yet to correct your name, despite you trying for the past ten years. I doubt having my permission for anything is going to stop him from trying to get my notes," said Ella. "What does he want? Do he want people's PTSD notes to see where to send them or to find whatever pressure points they may have to change their behavior. Does he need to Black Mail someone?"

Andrea took a bite of chow mein, "he wants his brother's case notes and the case notes of his boy friend." She looked at Ella, hoping that she would have a solution.

Ella laughed, "oh, hmm let him come, I can spring a session on him, maybe he can work on the control issues he has because between him monopolizing your time and him sticking his nose in everyone's business I think he needs to get in a fight, it would be good for him. 

Andrea smirked, "so do you want him to come to your office or our home?"

"Which ever you want dear? I personally don't care for dramatic confrontation, but really you are the one who has to work with him in person, as far as it goes for me, he is just a family member with control issues, probably based in childhood trauma combined with a touch of neglect whose control issues are now inflicting harm on the people he cares about henceforth making his control issues no longer sensible because it is counter acting why he started having them in the first place." said Ella shrugging her shoulders.

"Ella, you pretty much summarized what I thought, but I want you to have fun with this, give me what ever fake life story you want so that I can hand it over to him," said Andrea, smiling at her wife. 

Ella smiled, "okay are we going for straight up lie or truth in a costume? Because I am up for either option? I mean should we just get a literal plot from a story or shall we go with something equally silly? Ooh can you give me a dark and gritty reboot? Just don't fridge yourself or give me a tragi-queer back story." She laughed at the very thought of this, she basically didn't have much in terms of how she got the kind of case load she got other than the fact that she was trained in Trauma Informed Care and Motivational Interviewing which has been proven rather successful with people with PTSD. Which meant that NHS and the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency approved of it, plus she was a army brat growing up and was part of the army herself. So she just happened to have the experience and training they desired, there really was no special manner in how she got the job, with the exception of maybe just maybe she has a pretty high security clearance level, because while she wasn't in active combat too often, she was one hell of a strategist, but she could catch hands if she needed to.

She met Andrea when they were in school on the base, they rarely ever shared classes but given that both of their parents seemed to be on similar deployment routes, they always were in the same base. They finally met at her father's retirement party and they really hit it off and became a pair, it wasn't like anything spectacular happened they just happened to come along together quite well. Plus they both worked jobs that required privacy and confidentiality, which made it quite easy to keep the separation between home and work life. Of course the current Boss problem would violate their separation of home and work rule, but ultimately Mycroft fucking Holmes has proved himself a nuissance long enough, not so much a nuissance more of a concern. 

Andrea laughed, "maybe I should just give him our address, and knowing how impulsive he has been lately, he'll just show up. And do this like an intervention."

Ella laughed, "I don't do interventions, I just gently draw it out of people."

Andrea smirked, "oh Ella, it is going to take so much work to get anything out of him, but I will absolutely enjoy watching unleash your mental tool box on him."

"Ooh does he still have his umbrella sword? Is fencing in his repertoire of skills? I'd challaenge him to a match, he wins I answer 20 open end questions if his. If I win you get a raise and an explicit statement saying that when you are one vacations you are fully and truly on vacation," said Ella laughing. 

Andrea giggled, "okay it's settled I'll just send him the address now, and give details showing that you notes in the living room safe, and when he tries for it, you swoop in, and challenge him to the match." She sat back in her chair and smiled at her wife. "You know this is ridiculous."

"But you wouldn't have it any other way, I'll just get things ready for this confrontation," said Ella as she stood up and walked to her wife and kissed her on the cheek before leaving for her study.

"Yeah life would be boring otherwise," said Andrea as she texted Mycroft the pertinent information. She smiled as she sent off the text.

Mycroft sat in his house alone, he didn't really let it bother him, alone was good in his opinion. He didn't mind that people worried about his preference to be alone, he just wished they didn't wear it so obviously when they talked to him about it. He never thought himself to be lonely, he had other pursuits in life, he was just for the most part alone doing things. It was just easier for him that way. He didn't mind though he just didn't like to be asked. He sighed as he went through the events of today in his mind, and he just didn't like it, he lost control too many times and he found that unacceptable. 

He looked at the messages he missed while he was off having tea with his dear family, of course Dr. Hunter got approved to go to Sherringford, they probably only saw her credentials and security approvals in the US and waived her through. He had a slight hope that the security checks would clear up the issue by simply not letting her visit but he should've known better than to hope for something. Usually hope meant disappointment for Mycroft, so he didn't hope anymore nor did he have expectations, he found that was one of the easiest ways of killing any twinges of useless feelings that could come with disappointment. 

He picked up the phone and dialed Dr. Hunter, it was probably the afternoon in San Francisco, so he probably would catch her. 

Dr. Aithne Hunter was sitting at her desk, knowing full well that she was only supposed to work a half day, but she didn't feel like leaving the office. She just returned from Brunch with her twin brother, and the man did that annoying thing where he inisited on joining her on endeavors that could possible get them in trouble. Plus he was doing that annoying overshare thing he does before he gets on the manic side of things, which was rarely fun on the business end of family life because the man had a habit of being really generous in donations. Which while didn't hurt those he helped, and he did meet his promises, he rarely thought about how their brothers would feel about it, but again he was the face of the company, so his brothers really couldn't argue with him. And 99% of the time his wild ideas did turn a profit or give an insane amount of positive attention that their stock rate rise made up for any potential loss of income. Her twin was an odd man, but quite frankly she felt that they were an odd family to begin with. Her private phone rang, "hello Mycroft, what can I do for you?"

Mycroft sighed, "you were approved by security, to come to Sherringford."

"Ooh I was, you know this is the fastest security ever approved me for anything. I take it being part of human rights groups and family reunification projects isn't a bad thing in the U.K." Replied Aithne, "also was my program director approved, because they are invaluable to me making this decision. Also a heads up, my brother is planning to accompany me to this trip across the pond, not to sherringford, but he just needs to check out the new production labs up North. You might want to keep an extra eye on Sherlock's flat because I think he is looking to punch him, but not a bad beating in anyway, but you know just one sucker punch and leaving." She laughed, "honestly I am just kidding, I think he is saving that for a very special occasion, the punch is for the whole fucking over his computer and back up drives incident, not some weird grudge over cluedo. Plus my brother has an agreement with the rest of us that he'll get in no more brawls."

"Why do you talk so much?" Snapped Mycroft, "it is rather annoying, you keep going and going. Do you ever take a breath? Do you ever shut up?"

"Woah you sound like my Mother, she didn't like me talking so much it was always funny because she couldn't shut up. But I mean if you don't like what you are hearing shutting someone up is the way to go," replied Aithne, she shifted in her chair and put her legs on her desk. "Let me guess you are one of those kinds who is always careful with their words. Well good for you, but given that I spent a good chunk of my life, silent be it through force or self selected for my own safety, I really do not care to be quiet. Am I giving you too much info, more than likely yes, but I think you of all people would probably like to know all the information possible. So yes I will lay all my cards on the table with you, because I save the double talk game for funders."

Mycroft laughed, "you at rather strange, you know."

"Yeah missing out on what many people consider an important factor in whether one should or should not do a thing can probably do that to a person. Or it could've the 5 years of life in a children's institution followed by intensive attachment parenting by someone who by all means is not a good parent to use such a tactic. I mean let's be real Mycroft, there can be many factors in one's strangeness," said Aithne laughing. "Also Mycroft, don't tell me to be quiet, I don't take kindly to being silenced, it makes me stubborn and when I am stubborn it clouds my judgement, and let's be honest you don't want me with clouded judgement for this decision."

Mycroft sighed, "okay, just tell me when you are able to come for the evaluation, and we arrange the proper arrangements." 

"Well I'll fax you my plans, I just need to fill some program business to work on this week. So expect next week to be the time we come for the evaluation. I mean this is a Saturday and I would like to not get yelled at by HR again for over working. Have a nice evening," and with the Aithne hung up on Mycroft.

Mycroft sighed, he really didn't like Aithne, but he also already told his parents of the plan. Maybe Aithne would say no. He looked at his phone and saw that Anthea texted him an address, and short profile on Ella Thompson. It even included the layout of the building, if there was one thing he liked about Anthea, it was that she was fast, efficient, and didn't let her opinions cloud her ability to do her job. Well there was plenty to like about her, she wasn't boring, and she seemed to be pretty above human entanglements he never heard of her in all the ebb and flow of gossip that happens in any office, and he liked that. 

Mycroft walked around his library and pulled at a precise sequence of books revealing a hidden drawer. He sighed, he always hated the leg work, but he wanted this to be done with as little people as possible knowing, because as much as he hated to admit it. Anthea was right about how getting ella's notes would betray the trust of many of his colleagues. He pulled out a kit for lock picking and a few other gadgets that broke codes and disrupted signals. He donned an outfit that made it easy for him to blend into a crowd while hard to be seen, it was also made for ease of movement in case things get really hands on. It took him forever to find a shoe that matched his desires for style while serving practicality. He decided to opt out of getting the driver to take him there, and looked at his garage, he didn't drive it for quite some time, he had a decent personal car that was average and forgettable. Well he had other cars too, eye catching cars that people envy but that's for fun, not work; the ugly, little late model hatchback that people just ignore was perfect for times like this.

 

He decided to take himself to Ella Thompson's flat. It was part of a duplex in a quiet neighborhood, Mycroft had an easy time parking. It seemed empty, it was 10pm and her spending reports showed that she went to the movies every Saturday and from her social media, her time of choice would put her prime time to the movies would be at the hour, and given that she lived alone according to the report. Mycroft assumed that he could easily enter the home, glance through the records, and leave before she even came back. He looked again at the records, which showed that she paid for a ticket to a 9:30 pm showing of some action film, so he knew that he had plenty of time. 

He strolled up to the front door, and made quick work of the door, he didn't hear or see any alarms, which he thought was a bit suspicious for someone who was so secretive in her billing to NHS. He shrugged his shoulders and followed the map to the safe according to Anthea's plan. He found the safe built into the side table next to a desk in what one would consider the office. 

Andrea and Ella watched Mycroft move around Ella's offices, they were waiting for Mycroft to crack the code, excited for what was next.

Mycroft looked at the fingerprint patterns on the key pad, it was too much info to make a consideration. He pulled out a device that could crack codes for any swipe card. The safe obviously had a key card bypass, so he swiped it. 

011404180501141506011420080501

That is an odd code he thought. His brain always ran in the back ground but the safe obviously had a lot of info, all the notebooks he pulled so far had no clinical notes, if anything this was all notes of someone sentimental. A picture caught his eye, it was a picture of Anthea, albeit younger, but very recognizable. He opened a few boxes, there was even more photos some of them included Anthea, some had Ella, some had the two of them. "Oh bugger," he came across a photo, both of Anthea and Ella, they were wearing white, it was obviously a wedding photo. Mycroft quickly put everything back, he jumped up and decided to abandon the task at hand. He scrambled out the office to head to the closest exit, by Ella was already waiting by the door. Mycroft internally kicked himself. 

"Hello Mycroft," greeted Ella, "welcome to our home, I am sure you have all kinds of questions, and between Andrea and your brother I have so much to talk with you about. So you can keep running and we forget all about this, or we can do a little wager to set up who gets to ask the questions and who has to answer."

Mycroft stared intently at Ella, "who is andrea? Also what does this wager entail?"

"My name is not Anthea, you've been calling me the wrong name for the past 8 years, and you never bothered to call me my actual name," said Andrea, who was standing on the landing of the stairs next to the front door. "You are the only one who calls me Anthea, and for the first 2 years I kept trying to correct you, but it never stuck. You're literally the only one in the entire department who does it and we aren't sure if you are doing it because you are just obtuse or you are being so consumed in whatever head game you are currently playing to notice."

Mycroft looked at Anthea... wait he means Andrea. Oh g-d he hope he didn't do that with anyone else... who is he kidding, he probably has. He felt a slight twinge of pain. "Sorry Andrea, I'll try to do better."

"Mycroft are you going to try to or do better?" Said Ella, a light smirk threatening to break across her face. She knew that the question was slightly antagonistic.

Mycroft sighed, "okay I will from here on out remember that Andrea is Andrea not Anthea." He paused for a slight beat and started laughing, "that is the code to the safe isn't it. You used some basic child plays crypto code, and made a password to a safe full of sentimental knickknacks." 

Andrea and Ella joined in on the laughter. "Yeah we were surprised how deep you got into the photos before you realized what's was happening," said Andrea.

Mycroft scowled at them, "okay but what is this wager you want, Ella?"

"So I heard you carry a sword umbrella. How is your fencing skills?" asked Ella smiling as she asked her questions.

Mycroft stared at her perplexed.

"Well I went to Oxford for college, and I was on the fencing team. I am just going to assume that you did martial arts of some form to get into the kind of work you do. And given that you carry an sword umbrella one could assume some form of fencing was one of your martial arts, because the only kind of sword that could possibly fit and umbrella unnoticed would be the ones found in the forms of fencing," continued Ella. 

Mycroft nodded at Ella's observations, "well I have indeed studied and mastered to a level of competency multiple forms of fencing, are you challenging me to a duel?"

"Yes, I am. You win, you get to ask me 20 open ended questions, I am not going to show you my notes because knowing you, you are going to deduce more than I want you to know from my note taking, and you are probably going to deduce somethings wrong but I am going to assume you are like your brother and terrible at taking the news of being wrong. If I win, Andrea gets a raise and the guarantee that if she is to be on vacation, she is truly going to be on vacation, she won't be bound to returning just because you made some international incident and you need my lovely wife's amazong deescalation skills, but to compensate you for your rash decision I will allow you one open ended questions and four yes/no questions," replied Ella. 

"Why would you need a raise?" Asked Mycroft staring at Andrea.

Andrea looked at Mycroft and wondered if this rich boy had no concept of how much things actually cost in this city. She started pondering if he actually ever looks at how much things cost, his brother seemed to have some concept of money but if she remembered right, his foray into drug misuse caused his fund to get restricted. "I may be your right hand, but I am still only getting paid like a government employed executive assistant, I mean you really are pushing the "other duties as assigned" part of my job description. The only reason I stick around is the fact that this is exciting. Otherwise I could easily get paid at least £10,000 more a year if I was to move to one of the financial institutions, of course I feel like I could also potentially be black balled and therefore never able to work again," said Andrea internally amused at Mycroft's uncomfortable squirming. 

"You don't need to duel for the pay raise, I'll just tell the administration that you are due for a pay raise and probably a title change if the treasury fights it," replied Mycroft, feeling a bit uncomfortable that he wasn't aware that Andrea was earning only as much as any other agencies executive assistants, she had to put up with a lot more than anyone else. "Okay what do you want to replace that part of the wager with?"

"Okay how about Danny gets a raise because you are really pushing "other duties as assigned" for him as well, and we both get one week long vacation guaranteed a year," replied Andrea.

"Okay who is Danny?" Said Mycroft.

"Your driver, you pretty much push him into role of body guard at least once a week, I mean do you know how much skills goes into being a tactical driver. That stuff goes well into body guard territory. Also what have you been calling Danny?" Replied Andrea.

"Oh I thought his name was Dandy? And he is personally on my payroll, I'll adjust his rates immediately," said Mycroft now seriously wondering if he is underpaying all his support staff, and how should he go about correcting it. Wait was he misnamming all of them? "That doesn't need to be part of the wager."

Andrea pondered for a minute, and smiled, "you remove all the in-house surveillance from Sherlock and John's apartment, you can still observe from outside. Maybe offer them some cameras they are in control of, but you'll have to ask permission to do so. I still want to get a guaranteed vacation," said andrea. 

Ella looked at her wife, slightly impressed with the bet she put down, because that was going to be bound to make Mycroft super uncomfortable and possibly agitated which might just make this match rather easy to win. Also it could probably do wonders for two folks on her caseload and like any one in social services who doesn't love when a problem solves itself in a fairly satisfying mannerisms .

"I accept the wager," Mycroft smirked, this is probably going to be a decent match, he was taller than her by three inches, and she didn't seem too much younger than him. 

"Okay meet you on the roof, our neighbors already have a strip set up because the kids all have dreams of olympics in fencing or rowing, basically the noise starts early, so the agreement is they let us borrow their equipment sometimes and sometimes we play with the kids. Also do you want foil or sabre?" Asked Ella, as she ascended the stairs leaving Mycroft.

"Foil," called out Mycroft he looked around and noticed Andrea staring at him amused. "So how long have you been married?"

"Long enough," said Andrea, a slight smirk developing on her face.

"So are you and Danny the only people I keep misnaming?" Asked Mycroft bracing for an answer.

"Yes fortunately it was only the two of us but the ridiculous thing is, we are the ones who spend the most time with you, and Anthea and Dandy seems to be names that people would have the harder time with," replied Andrea as she gestured for him to follow her up the stairs.

Mycroft and Andrea emerged onto the roof, Ella stood next to a group of teenagers in the middle of the strip. "Mycroft, are you fine with us just using the jackets, I mean I think we both are in fairly decent clothes for the rest of this task."

Mycroft nodded, "yes that will be fine." 

The teens were holding all the equipment one would need for a fencing bout, they wordlessly handed Mycroft and Andrea their respective jackets and and masks, which they both put on. They took their respective spots on the strip.

The teens added the contact points and plugged the cords in on both Mycroft and Ella and backed away.

Andrea stood to the side of the strip and in the middle. "First to five touches wins, if we get a double touch that is automatically void. En garde!" 

Ella and Mycroft made sure they were in the correct part of the strip..

Andrea raised a hand, "pret!"

Mycroft and Ella took their stances.

Andrea swung her hand dramatically, "Allez!"

Ella took a step forward and lunged at Mycroft, who parried against Ella's foil. Who in turn did a quick upward movement that caused Mycroft to quickly stumble forward that ended with Ella tapping Mycroft in the chest. A red light flashed, Ella smiled behind her mask.

"One point to Ella," called out Andrea.

They quickly separated and went back to their marks on the strip. "You were quite lucky with that Dr. Thompson, it is only going to get harder!" Said Mycroft slightly out of breath. 

Ella laughed, "you can keep telling yourself that if it it helps."

"Allez!" Yelled Andrea. 

Mycroft stomped to the side before darting the inwardly to lunge at Ella who quickly stepped to the side and parried against Mycroft. Her foil slid agains Mycroft's, the green and red lights flashed at the exact same time.

"Arrest! That was a double touch," said Andrea.

Mycroft and Ella separated and went to their own side of the strip.

"You have to admit that Appel is kind of ridiculous," said Ella as she took her stance.

"It isn't when it works," replied Mycroft also getting in the starting positions.

"It didn't work it was a double touch," snapped Ella.

Andrea raised her hand, both Mycroft and Ella stopped talking. Andrea threw down her hand "Allez!"

Ella reared back a little and so did Mycroft. They both rushed as each other, Ella did a quick inward jab narrowing missing Mycroft's own foil and swiftly tapping Mycroft's vest, as she rolled the rest of her body away from him. A red light flashed. 

"Two points Ella, zero points Mycroft," announced Andrea. As Mycroft and Ella took their spots and took stance. Andrea raised her hand, "Allez!" She called out as she dropped her hand. 

Mycroft took a running start and lunged at Ella, who crouched low and delivered a tap to Mycroft's vest and a red light flashed. 

"Mycroft I have a feeling intimidation and distraction is a go to for you," said Ella as she stepped back and took her mark. "Does that apply to other parts of your life as well."

Mycroft huffed as he went back to his mark on the strip, "I'll admit you are pretty good."

"Ella has three point and Mycroft has zero," Andrea raised a hand, "Allez!" She threw her hand. 

Mycroft stood back with his foil slightly raised, obviously waiting for Ella to make the first move.she stayed back not even looking to make and effort to approach she eventually even lowered her weapon. 

Mycroft got agitated and rushed at her again, Ella took a step forward and crouched below mycroft's broad swing. She quickly turned around rolled her body behind Mycroft, and did a quick tap at Mycroft's vest. A redlight flashed. Mycroft let out a frustrated groan. 

Ella laughed, "you know for someone who carries a sword umbrella, I am starting to think you won't be too good at using it, also for someone who looks so put together as obvious through most of your outfits you are a rather sloppy fencer. You have some poise but when it cracks, it really cracks."

"Ella, you'll probably want to stop with the comments, he isn't fun to deal with when he is angry," said Andrea keeping an uneasy eye on the two of them.

"But honey aren't you the one who has to do most of the shooting to protect this man," said Ella smirking under her mask.

"En Garde," announced Andrea.

Mycroft was starting to get irritated, he needed to rethink his strategy, he needed to win. He needed more info than what 1 open ended question with 4 yes/no questions can provide. He started thinking out multiple strategies. Ella seemed to be willing to play in multiple stances and didn't seem to be following any formal tactics. He started analyzing her past movements, he felt his foil get struck.

"Be mindful Mycroft, I could've ended this a lot sooner," quipped Ella. She did a quick jump backward and parry as Mycroft lunged forward. "I really hope you are a man of your word, because from what a certain someone said, you plowed over their request for more privacy, I am going to assume loosing this will have to force your hand if you are indeed a man of your word." 

Mycroft backed up and did a quick lunge mid sentence, the green light flashed. “Don’t get cocky I can still win.”

“That really is a foolish thing to say when I am only one point away from beating you,” said Ella.

Ella and Mycroft took their spots on the strip.  
Andrea smirked, “En Garde!” Mycroft and Ella took their stances. 

“Pret!” called Andrea. Mycroft and Ella raised their foils.

“Allez!” announced Andrea, and with that both Ella and Mycroft both lunged at each other.

Mycroft decided that since Ella kept striking from below he might as well aim towards there.

Ella smirked as she jumped up and lunged at Mycroft, he was slightly taken off by the fact that she struck from above. But he parried the attack away from him, Ella stepped back slightly and made a slight roll towards Mycroft back only to swiftly rotate again in front of Mycroft. She tapped him with her foil, but the contact didn’t strike they were dangerously locked into each other in a way that it was impossible for either of them to successfully strike. They pushed off each other at the same time. And a flash of green and red light appeared. 

“Arrest! That was double touch!” announced Andrea.

The teens all yelled “No!”

Andrea turned to the teens, “okay than which went off first?”

“The Red one” they all announced. 

“I think it was a double touch,” repeated Andrea.

“Na-ah,” snapped one of the teens. He brought his computer over and showed Andrea the screen. The scoring system had computer capabilities, and it showed that Ella did indeed strike one second faster than Mycroft.

One of the teens yelled, “It’s midnight, we got church in the morning and mum and da won’t let us back in until we are sure you are all off the roof, because mum says that the homeowners insurance probably won’t cover any injuries involving the roof.” 

One of the other teens added, “I’m sure it is a big deal if you wanted to duel in the middle of the fucking night, but going to church on sundays is the only thing that stops our grandparents from driving our parents up the wall and when they go up the wall, they take us all with them and I for one would like a good summer for once.” 

The third teen, “Come on Doc, Andrea, just finish it, the software don’t lie and that man just looks sad, and when you fight a sad guy no one wins. So take Mr. Sadsacks off the roof and him process his shit and you use some kind of motivational interviewing to get his ass to realize whatever it is you need Mr. Sadsacks to realize.”

"I am not sad!" Cried out Mycroft, "I am wearing a mask, so children what about me makes you all think I am sad."

"Your posture and the rest of your body language just screams sad, sir," said the third teen. 

"The children are obviously tired we can either go one more bout or we can leave, and I accept that I loss," said Mycroft.

Andrea sighed, “Okay we call it, Ella hit five. We can discuss the terms of the agreement now or tomorrow morning. We can meet you for breakfast or you can come in the afternoon, we don't know how your sundays look."

"Well that's settled we can get off this fucking roof," said the first teen as he started packing up the scoring kit. His siblings approached Ella and Mycroft, and started to removed the wires of the kid while Mycroft and Ella removed the outfits and handed it back to the teens. 

The first teen said, "well we can't get off the roof till we see you exit."

Andrea, Ella, and Mycroft made their way to their roof entrance. 

Ella turned around, "thanks for willing to put up with that, we do appreciate it."

"No problem but next time I think you should go with a real duel, that guy obviously needs to be put out of his misery," said the third teen.

The first and second teens both slapped the back of the head of the third teen groaned and said, "sorry I shouldn't have said that." 

Ella laughed and Mycroft scowled at the comment.

The three of them were back inside of Ella and Andrea's flat, sitting in Ella'a office. 

"Okay you have until Wednesday to get rid of all the surveillance tools from the inside of Sherlock and John's home, otherwise I will report you to the higher ups for unauthorized surveillance on your parents, because the approval was only for Sherlock," said Andrea. "Also you are going to tell Sherlock that you are removing the surveillance, I think that could make a difference for him."

Mycroft sighed, "yes I agree to that deadline."

"Also let's hold off on your questions because again you only get one open ended one and I want you to make it a good one," chimed in Ella. "Well if you excuse us, Mycroft, we would like to call it a night."

Mycroft nodded in acknowledgment, "okay we'll handle the question at a later date, and I'd say it was a good night but things went wrong."

They walked Mycroft to the door. Mycroft silently offered his hand out to Ella, "it was interesting meeting you at long last."

Ella shook Mycroft's hand, "it was interesting finally meeting you, and remember you were just a kid yourself when everything happened, it wasn't your fault. It was just a combo of unfortunate stuff all rolled into one. You can't change the past but what has fixating on fixing the past got you. I want you to think about that before we meet again."

"I am not going to be one of your clients," replied Mycroft.

"Oh I know that, but your work is a little too wrapped in my work. So you must understand why I am saying that," said Ella. "I want you to think about how staying the same in how you handling your siblings will affect you, but remember what happened wasn't your fault."

Mycroft stared at her, and nodded and left into the night.


	14. Flashbacks and Fast Cars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sherlock, John, and Mycroft all have rough nights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> definitely some homophobic language in this chapter, but it's during the flashback.

Sherlock stared at John while they were both trying to settle in to bed, "I'm sorry."

John laughed, "there isn't anything to be sorry about."  
"Well I mean I shouldn't have panicked in the bath tub, I mean I thought I was going to be okay with it but suddenly I wasn't when I realized you had full view of my scars. And now you got a weird bruise on your nose," said Sherlock shifting uncomfortably.

"And you seemed to have a seizure while trying to get out, you couldn't help it, I am okay, you are okay. There is no permanent damage. Like I said it's all okay, we are fine, and I'll get a non-slip mat for the tub as soon as possible. Better we find out we need one with us than with Rosie right," said John as he stretched out his arms inviting Sherlock into a cuddle. 

Sherlock shook his head and stayed to his side of the bed, "I think I've had enough physical touch for the night. But yes definitely better us than Rosie."

John nodded, "that's fine, and thank you for pushing your comfort zone a little bit tonight. It was an enjoyable experience, I hope you enjoyed it too."

Sherlock nodded his head, "yes I enjoyed it, I would consider doing it again sometime." 

John smiled but also started looking around, "so where is Toby supposed to stay anyways?" 

Sherlock pointed towards the foot of the bed, "that way she has the best access to assist when needed." Sherlock leaned back and closed his eyes, sleep isn’t an easy thing for Sherlock, sometimes he just spends the time sorting the events of the day into his mind palace. He knows that sometimes he can get lost in it, because it has struck him fairly recently that he wasn’t completely in control of when the walls came up. But he figures that with proper organization of it, the walls can stay under his control. He listed all the events he had in the day that gave him any strong feelings, he separated the events by what kind of strong feelings he had, whether it would serve him to hold onto or not. It was a lot of info to process.

He thought of the couple's therapy session, that can stay, he walked the memory to a slowly developing library and tool shop where he kept all the things he has learned from therapy because as annoying as Ella could be and given that he only recently learned to see the value in not shutting down his emotions but rather allowing himself to feel the emotions in a way where it wasn’t overwhelming. He found it helpful that some how there was multiple scientifically proven routes of doing this and he appreciated that Ella helped him learn about all of them and she gave him the space to pick and choose from the different programs what he thought useful and what he could scrap. 

He automatically tossed the memories of getting toby and going with her to the store into a new room that was going to be dedicated to Toby and the info it took to keep her in a job. Kayla was probably going to have to share a space with Toby, but he wasn’t sure if they should differentiate just yet, he did have to see her again tomorrow, so he was sure the room for toby would be even more filled with information and maybe even toys. He felt the bed shift, something brushed up against his arm. He took a step out of the mind palace, John was asleep his hand was brushed up against Sherlock's. Sherlock smiled, and reached out to hold John's hand.

Sherlock realized almost instantly that he made a mistake, because as soon as he gripped John's hand. John had sat bolt up and pinned Sherlock by his wrist, he looked to be in a rage, John was having a nightmare. Sherlock tried to keep calm, he didn't me want to make this worse. He flinched when John's grip on him grew tighter, John raised a hand, when suddenly he felt John get knocked off of him. Toby tackled John off of the bed, she was licking and pawing at John, who was struggling and still seemed to be asleep. Sherlock took a deep breath and tried to stay in the moment, "John wake up!" 

Toby was trying her best to wake up John, whatever John was dreaming of seemed to have an extremely strong grip on him. 

Sherlock was deeply concerned because usually by now he was awake, he wanted to try reaching out for John again but he knew better. Toby was putting up a heroic effort to wake up John whose nightmare seemed to be full on night terror at this point. Sherlock took a deep breath and tried to think of a way to handle this but his brain seemed to be on pause, he tried to open the door to the library and took shop in his mind palace but nothing seems to be accessible at the moment. So he kept deep breathing, he considered leaving the room, but he thought John waking up in an empty room would make the needed processing conversation afterwards much harder to start. He thought about possibly approaching John, but he wasn't sure he could do that and keep himself safe. He knew that if John was awake he wouldn't attack him, but in this state he wasn't guaranteed to stay safe. So he just stayed and let Toby do her job.

John was confused, he was sitting in a familiar kitchen, he heard a sound of something crashing. He ran towards the sound, it's his dad he was throwing stuff and screaming again. "I didn't raise you to be like this! No daughter of mine is going to be a fucking dyke!" His dad was standing over Harry who managed to find herself into a corner, she was trying to shift out of the way but dad had her boxed in. Dad started kicking her, John rushed over and tried to pull his dad off Harry. "What are you doing John? Are you going to defend that freak?"

"Dad, you don't have to do this!" Yelled John. John yelped as his dad grabbed him by his wrist and started twisting it. John wrenched his arm out of his dad's grip and tackled him.

"I'm sorry, John," said Harry as she ran for the door through the kitchen.

His dad threw John off of him, and made chase for Harry, grabbing a knife on the way. 

John ran after his dad, and tackled him knocking the knife out of his hand and down a storm drain. John knew he was a smaller man than his dad and despite being a compact mass of muscles through rugby his dad was still stronger. He held on as best he could but his dad managed to pin him down and rained down on him a large amount of blows. He swore he could hear someone calling his name. But couldn't see anyone but his dad, Harry was long gone, John hoped she got to a better place. He could hear a dog bark but he didn't know where it came from, did something just lick on him... he opened his eyes.

He was no longer outside of his childhood home, he was on the floor on an exceedingly plush rug, he was getting licked by a dog, it took a few minutes for his brain to catch up, he was in his bed room, no wait. Their bedroom. No wait. Wait. Wait. Why is it a "their" who was the other part of that equation. SHERLOCK his brain screamed at him, he felt a wave of guilt because he knew what usually happened during his nightmares. He slowly got up and saw Sherlock sitting on top of their bed tensed up and curling into himself, he was taking deep breaths while closing his eyes. John stood quietly looking at Sherlock unsure of what to do. 

Toby hopped up on the bed and nudged her head into Sherlock's lap. Sherlock opened his eyes and looked down at Toby and began stroking her head. 

"Sherlock, I'm sorry," said John trying to figure out what to say, he wasn't even sure if Sherlock could hear him. "I was having a dream, one I haven't had in years. It was a flashback from when I was a kid." He realized that he probably shouldn't approach Sherlock until he was calmer. 

Sherlock's breathing slowed down, he looked up at John as he continued petting Toby. He took a deep breath and exhaled, "John are you okay? Waking you up took a lot longer than usual."

"Sherlock I am as good as I could be with the circumstances but I am more concerned about you," replied John. "You always... no wait, I'm sorry it happened again, I mean I get it can take a while for this to work but I can try other interventions for the nightmares, it can't hurt to try all of them."

Sherlock nodded, "you don't have to if you don't want to, you were pretty adamant against the other options. I am here and I am as okay as I can be with the circumstances." 

"I wish I could be better at this, I mean this can't possibly be good for you, and I mean what if I mess up even more. I get it supposedly PTSD is something that can go away, but I don't know if it will go away for me. And I know I set you off, and I could only imagine what it could do to Rosie. I think you are both better off without me," said John rather dejectedly.

Sherlock reached out for John's arm, "no we tried apart and it was terrible, and as far as it goes we are both in treatment and giving it all we can, we are giving it the best possible try we can. I don't want to see you go." 

Toby hopped off the bed and went to her little doggie bed, probably thinking she did her job well.

"I feel like I am just going to mess this all up and as much as I try to be positive, and think otherwise I can't help but feel like I am going to royally fuck this up. Rosie obviously likes you better and your family can do things that I can't even dream of," said John as he placed his free hand in Sherlock's. "what if my best is not enough?" 

"You are enough, and despite all we have gone through together, we are still here and doing our best," Sherlock pulled John back to the bed and curled up around him. "And hey if you are really so worried about messing up Rosie we can do our very best to make sure she is a socially competent child by 8 years old and put her in a boarding school, I mean I can really hype her up with some selective use of reading materials so that she romances the idea of going away, therefore cutting down on any possible chances of homesickness or feeling abandoned. That way we can be really fantastic parents on the weekends and holidays because she can't possible be around us long enough for us to mess her up that way." He was cracking up by the time he finished that sentence.

John laughed, "that sounds terrible but also it seems to be a decent back up plan. Was that what your parents did with you and Mycroft? Because as far as it goes I've only seen your parents as pleasant people."

Sherlock rolled onto his back, "my parents are pleasant people, I was homeschooled till I was 11 because I didn't really get along with the school kids and the teachers weren't sure what to do with me. Mycroft started boarding school as soon as he could which is probably why I saw him as tolerable as I did as a child because he wasn't around long enough for me to hate him. I think after Eurus was sent away they were afraid to let go of me, which makes sense given the circumstances.” He took a pause and a deep breath, “I'd ask about your childhood but I think you mentioned that your dream was a flashback to childhood. That is the first one you've told me was related to your childhood. And I know you mentioned that your dad earlier when we getting the tea ready. And I know you rarely deal with your family. We have been dealing with my family a little too much lately, just remember you can always take a break when it gets to be too much. I don’t want you to suffer through them when it gets to be too much.”

“Thanks Sherlock for reminding me that is always an option. I guess I am not used to dealing with families and how they function, also it throws me off that your parents just accepted that we are together and they already offered to be exceedingly generous when it comes to Rosie. My parents wouldn’t have reacted that way, I mean my mum probably wouldn’t say much, but that’s because she didn't say much when Harry came out, but my dad,” John paused and took a deep breath. “He didn't take it too well, he attacked her. That was the day she ran away, that was what I was dreaming about.” 

Sherlock nodded, he stretched out his arms for John.

John swallowed, “didn’t you say you’ve had enough physical contact tonight, you don’t have to do this for me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s okay, John we both need this right now,” said Sherlock, motioning for John to accept his hug. 

John took a deep breath and rolled into Sherlock's hug, he looked into Sherlock’s eyes, “thanks Sherlock.”

“Not a problem, John, you know I love you,” said Sherlock, he looked at John and smiled. He kissed John on the top of his head. 

John smiled against Sherlock’s neck, “love you too.” He pressed a few soft kisses along his jawline. He rolled Sherlock onto his back.

Sherlock flinched, his heart rate sped up, and he started breathing fast. 

“Sorry, I should've been more thoughtful,” said John as he got off Sherlock.

“Apology accepted,” said Sherlock as he tried to regulate his breathing. 

John got up, and grabbed Sherlock a bottle of water from the night table. “I’m rubbish at this,” said John rather sadly.

Sherlock shrugged, “we both are.”

“Wish there was a book,” said John, yawning. 

“Would you read it? Or would it just take out a lot of the thrills out of one’s life?” Said Sherlock, he closed his eyes and leaned back.

“I’d rather be shot at than deal with a lot of the emotional stuff I have to process,” said John as he let out a yawn while closing his eyes.

Sherlock smiled a sad smile, “I think I am going to have to agree with you on that front.” His head eyes drifted to the clock, only 2 hours had passes since the incident in the tub, 3.5 since their bit on the couch. A lot changed since this morning and it didn't bother him, it didn't bother him that a lot changed in the past couple of weeks. Time passing often meant things changed but there is something about how fast things could change. He thought about how much he panicked in the bathroom, he hurt John, and John had his moments. It was just odd how fast things can go from blissful to intolerable. He didn’t know what to do with That feeling he tried to sit in that feeling and figure out why it bothered him now when it used to not bother him. There was at times where he felt that the the middl point in the swings between bliss and pain rather boring, he couldn’t identify what about it made him feel bored. It was only now that John and Rosie was back in his life in a full time capacity did he realise that the balance didn't have to be boring. He understood what Ella and the other doctors talked about when it came to extreme moods affecting his ability to function but it killed the boredom. He hasn't really felt the boredom as strongly as he used to and for that he was grateful, but at the same time he always wondered when it was coming back. 

He sorted more of the day’s experiences into his mind palace, at times he felt that it could consume him one day, but he wasn’t sure how to function with out it. There was moments when he had a lot more info to process something and he had to dig much further down. It was like the mind palace was a lot faster than he was in those moments, it felt like his brain would just pause. It was annoying, and given the new info he got today, it seemed that other people noticed it too and it made them concerned and he didn’t like that look people gave him when they were concerned. He just couldn’t stand it. It was like a step away from pity and he didn't want to be pitied. After a while he felt that his brain finally put away everything in the right space, finally he can rest. He opened his eyes and watched John sleep until he too felt sleepy. His internal clock told him that 90 minutes has passed and John was probably in another cycle of REM sleep, Sherlock hoped that this round of REM sleep would be better. Sherlock finally closed his eyes and slept.

Mycroft was in his shitty little sedan, distracted by the fact that he was so sloppy during his match against Ella, he knew he was better than that. He knew he was better, why didn't he do better. He could feel the seams of his composure ripping, he wanted to ask all those questions but now he had to pick just one. He turned on the car stereo. And pulled out his MP3 player, he usually preferred to listen to classics with he occasional dive into contemporary orchestra, much harder to hide subliminal messages or secret frequencies into them. But sometimes when he just had to have a good scream he played music that would seem at place in a car that was about to exhibit the behavior he was just about to do. Hmm he swiped through his play list, and picked a playlist full of songs with a ridiculous amount of bass. He cranked the stereo up and let the subwoofer hit such ridiculous levels that windows were shaking. 

He pulled out a device that looked like GPS, with some random bright lights on top, it was a cloaking device, that created a blind spot on all the CCTV devices as he passed by, the bright blinking lights made sure that any cameras that were still on, couldn’t get a clear look. It also had the capability of turning all the lights ahead of him green. He pulled on a hoodie and a baseball cap. And with that he tore down the road, he didn’t really care where he was going as long as he didn’t kill anyone or did any property damage he was going to be okay.

The tore through the streets of London the way only a man with access to the traffic lights can. It made him feel in control, today and tonight he felt that he lost a lot of control. His entire family wanted him out of their business and he was having a hard time sitting with that revelation. He hated that he lost a match which meant not only did he not get as much of a chance to gather as much info as he could but also meant that he had to remove the security devices from Sherlock's home. He didn’t want to do it, but he really thought he would win, he felt really stupid, and he didn’t like feeling stupid. His grip on the moving pieces in his life was falling apart and he hated himself for allowing that to happen. He couldn’t pin point precisely when he lost control so he couldn’t even figure out where he could’ve changed things. He hit a roundabout that was empty, he took some really tight turns, “FUCK! FUCK!FUCK! FUCK! FUCK THIS SHIT! FUCK! FUCK THIS! FUCK THAT! FUCK YOU!” He rarely cursed, but sometimes it was the best way for him to let off steam, since it couldn’t possibly start a war when done in the right place and it certainly replaced the urge to eat enough calories to fuck up his plans for a month. He may have lost control of a lot of interpersonal and familial relationships, but he still could control what went into his mouth, and at least he had that. 

He hit the corner with a bit of a drift, the flash of cop lights dropped. He started laughing, he veered out of the turnabout. His eyes drifted towards the rear view mirror there was already a car chasing after him. The officers was obviously trying to use their radio to report his car, he adjusted the dial on his cloaking device. The officers looked confused because it was obvious that their scanners weren’t working. They also looked dreadfully confused, but of course not only was their radios not working but also the sedan may look like a shitty car one would give their teenager, but with all cars it’s what on the inside that counts. He smirked, he spent quite a few weeks gutting this terrible nondescript sedan that looked very much at home as the car of a teenager whose wealthy parents were upset at him. Not that he was one of those kids, his grades were immaculate and the teachers loved him, his peers not so much, but did they ever truly matter. No his parents got a rather awesome car for him to use during breaks when he was a teenager. Sherlock had the terrible car, mainly because he was ridiculously impulsive and half the time he would wreck whatever car he was using in the name of science, they just kept getting him cars though because he kept all kinds of weird things in his car, and it was a lot better for him to just drive them, then it was to see Sherlock deal with the cops because they were concerned about him carrying a couple of dead animals simply because he wanted to perform an autopsy on them.

Mycroft was rather lost in thought, not giving much thought to the chase he was in the middle of. The cops on the other hand had backup, back up that Mycroft just wasn’t paying attention to. Mycroft took a tight turn down a narrow street in hopes of shaking them. And in that moment, he realized that he was trapped. He wasn’t exactly sure how he was going to get out of it, because he wasn't in the mood to do any damage control. He sighed and stopped.  
The police officers approached his car, “license and registration please, also can you tell me why you have a infrared cloaking device on your dashboard? And obviously your car has a different kind of engine than meets the eye. So either you are so fucking wealthy you don’t give a shit or you are some agent having a strop and you fucked up and caught the attention of the police.”

“Excellent observation skills,” said Mycroft, “how would you feel about moving out of the beat patrol and into a better position?” 

One of the officers laughed, “I don’t want to go into private security.”

The other officer nudged at him and tilted his head up.

The speaking officer’s eyes drifted up to what the other officer was looking at, “I am assuming you are offering a government job.”

Mycroft tilted his head, “I am neither confirming nor denying that as my intent, but do if you please share what you observed that made you make that deduction?”

“The cameras are facing away from their usual spot and are off, obviously not tampered outside, so one could deduce that government is involved,” said the first officer. 

Mycroft laughed, “so what would it take for you both to just leave me?”

“A couple of traffic lights and timed crosswalks,” said the second officer. 

“The CCTV is fine for catching a hit and run or making us aware where to go help a person who has just been hit. But given the amount of times we get ‘i didn’t know there was a crosswalk.’ We figure some actual traffic lights and timed crosswalks with audio count down would really cut down on responding to those kind of calls,” said officer one. 

Mycroft stared at the two officers, “that is weirdly altruistic.”

“We grew up here,” the first officer gestured to the surroundings.

Mycroft immediately felt like an asshole, he was tearing down the road of some council housing, they really didn’t need some loud as fuck car tearing down their road recklessly. He sighed, “okay tell me the intersections and they should be there by the end of this week, i’ll even check on it personally.”  
The officers smiled, “well as long as you aren't speeding when you come check we should be fine.” 

Mycroft smile and nodded, “well I take it I am free to go?”

The first officer said, “oh absolutely.”

A flash of a camera goes off, the second officer had taken his photo. “Well shit.”

“Is that a Polaroid camera?” said Mycroft.

“Well yes it is, you can’t really trust cellphones to keep photos from encounters like this?” Said the second officer smiling. 

“Yes do basically if the crosswalks don’t pop up we’ll report you for being a regular car in a known drug dealing area, and I am sure that would cause all kinds of awkward for you and the CCTV folks,” said the first officer.

“You know you two are actually quite good, I wouldn’t mind having either of you in a ministry office some day,” said Mycroft, “no one has ever caught me off guard before.”

“Well we can be clever if we need be,” said the first officer. “Yeah my name is Samir and his name is Jabari, but we are serious about the crosswalk.”

Mycroft nodded, “i’ll make sure it happens.” He started his car off slowly and drove away following the law perfectly. He started laughing, he may lost control of many things in his life today, but he can still put up a fucking traffic light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically this has just been what I've been working on these nights, I just moved out for the first time in my life. It is a bit odd to be able to leave work and not be going back to a place where I have to work very hard to persevere. I mean I think I have made some decent progress in dealing with my own CPTSD. But yeah writing this tends to help in stopping me from getting in fights whenever someone says things to me that sets off the neuropathway that says "this is the phrase that is always used before you start getting screamed at, are you going to fight, flight, or stay for this one." So basically yeah it is has been a bit weird.


	15. Dinner and Discussions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aithne had a long day, and she was about to have a fairly long night as well. Her siblings are over for dinner and stories need to be retold. And across the atlantic, Mycroft has to make a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried really hard to break this up into something smaller I really did. But on the flip side this is all going to go somewhere trust me.

**Chapter 15.**

Aithne looked at the table around her during the usually Saturday family dinner, it was one of the weekends where their dad, Hiram, was in town, he was only an hour away by plane, but he didn’t feel the need to make the trip more than once a month, he just liked being in their lives, he was willing to give them as much affection as they were willing to receive from him. 

 

Her oldest brother, Francis, and his fiancé, Joey, was showing off an inspiration board with the plans for their wedding, they wanted a huge wedding and decided to have it in San Francisco that way, the majority of Joey’ family didn’t have to travel far. They sped up the wedding process despite being together since 2009, and open about it since the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2011. They were taking their time with the whole marriage process because Francis wanted to become an Legal Permanent Resident first, and that process was indeed a long one when you don’t have a job that could issue visas or anyone who could legally sponsor you. 

 

Francis wished he could’ve gone in on a special visa for armed forces specialists, but given that he was honorably discharged that was no longer an option. And given that his siblings were all current green card holders due to the investors visa, or there on education visas and extraordinary academic visas, but he did not fit any of the categories for entry with any of his siblings visas. So he was looking at a 14 year wait.  He currently was able to stay was because of a student visa and school was not his strong point, and he was also concerned the fact that he was disabled would only make it harder to get granted a visa.  There was a bit of a long shot with a couple of friends at different federal branches of his siblings. And he had some friends in the US Department of Defense trying to see if there was still a way to weasel him in using the armed forces specialist visa.  But no guarantees were made and that gray area was scary. They always had the intention of marriage but they also knew that federal inclusion of marriage equality was always a bit shaky. Also given the current political climate he was paranoid about being able to get back into US after leaving for Britain. He just knew he was anxious and didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize his current way of life. He smiled at Joey as they both listened this his family’s input on the inspiration boards.

 

Veteran Marine, First Sergeant Joey Mendoza was an odd man who was overly enthusiastic about working as a social security administration agent, he took a lot of pride in making sure that the Social Security Branch he was in charge of was working at maximum proficiency he knew the POMS with deadly accuracy and it was to the point that people specifically traveled to his branch for it. But initially he was prepared to be a lifer for the Marines, but he lost a leg when he hit by a large piece of shrapnel from an IED, luckily it was a below the knee cut. He had his black, wavy hair cut high and tight, he had dark brown eyes and was tan. He had scattering of visible scars that came from the attack that retired him, but also had some from his youth. He was short in comparison to his fellow marines, but he more than made up for it in strength, he was certainly bulky in muscle but he was still soft in some parts. 

 

Francis and Joey met in Afghanistan. He was also a twin who was considered the oldest of five kids, initially bonded with Francis over being the oldest of five, but further on bonded over the fact that they both had learning disabilities and their special interests over lapped so they didn't tire of each other. They both had the same kind of jokes when it came to being in fairly large sibling groups, they weren’t the smart one or the handsome one, so they had to be the nice ones. Which made the rest of the siblings wonder what the other descriptions floating out there for the other two kids.  But Joey also cracked jokes that made people question just how far he would go to make Francis happy, because at this point Aithne was willing to bet money that he probably has killed people on Francis’ behalf whether that was in the war zone or  their time as civilians, she didn’t want to think too much on. 

 

Her brother Francis, was in the Army and for some odd reason she really couldn’t remember much of his service history. He didn’t really talk much about it other than the fact that he was sent home after his unit got ambushed, then again talking was just difficult for him them these days. Francis currently worked as a security guard and did some odd jobs for Geneticorp Science and Labs, which was the company ran by his twin Scott and her twin Blaze. It wasn’t exactly fulfilling work in his opinion, but at least this way he was able to be around people he actually liked and be with his boyfriend, the idea of staying in England using his pension and inheritance did not seem appealing especially given the chance that he most likely would be the new focus of their mother’s intense hovering. He was tall, fair skinned, freckled with light brown hair and emerald eyes. His hair was cut into a crew cut and his posture was bolt straight, much like one would expect from the army, but it had a certain unevenness, that unevenness popped up in all sorts of places on him, ranging from his lopsided smile to the shaky grip in his right hand. 

 

“So are either of you inviting anyone from the service to the wedding?” Asked Hiram as he peered closely at the color scheme on the board... of course scarlet and Navy blue was going to be the main colors, he knows it's a silly thing to fuss over but he did wish his kids were a touch more creative when it came to such things, but really just because they met at a war zone doesn't mean they have to go with the colors of the US Marine Corp and the Royal Army. He didn’t exactly enjoy the gold and dusty rose combo for Scott and Josephine’s wedding, the color scheme was a nightmare to buy for. “Also is anyone from the scene coming because at this point I imagine the seating chart will be hilarious.” 

 

Francis looked at Joey, “well for me, Johnny W And Jamie S would be the definite guys for me since Johnny is why I am still alive and Jamie did provide a lot of support for me in spots of trouble. Ma...ma... Many of the men I served with didn’t make it back and the ones who came back really don’t approve of our relationship, be it because we’re a gay couple or he’s uhh... err... oh fuck.”

 

“Talk around the word dear,” said Joey patting his fiancé’s arm.

 

“What’s that country where our country invaded and colonized...” said Francis.

 

Everyone at the table gave a light laugh, “Frankie dear, they used to say the sun never sets on the British empire, so talk around the word more,” replied Joey

 

“The one with the tea!” 

 

“Narrows it down but still makes for a lot of them.”

 

“The one that had the bush... America! Or they could be upset that he’s American I haven’t really been able to figure it out. As for inviting people from the scene is kind of inevitable, I mean really, it is where I know the most people outside of any familial or work sense. But I am going to invite some some of my secondary school mates as well, I mean I am sure they would just love any excuse to visit San Francisco, because we all know they all probably have the free time. They’re a foppish bunch of guys with more dollars than sense, still love them though... except for Dorian, he never ages and is pretty much human teflon. At this point I think I only keep up with him to watch the inevitable train wreck to catch up with him.”

 

Scott shuddered, “at least you had the sense to not date him.” 

 

“Yeah, I may not have dated him, but we both know he tried to ‘accidentally’ confuse me for you back then. We were still using the red:blue system back then too, so the ass should've known,” said Francis while glaring at his brother. 

 

Josephine looked at her husband, “hope he doesn't pull that at the wedding.” She leaned back with a smirk.

 

“I know you would end him, dear,” replied Scott.

 

Josephine preened at that comment, “damn right I would.”

 

“O.. oo.. okay, b.. b... back to the topic at hand. The guest list.  Seriously dad, we have to fill up our side of the hall, joey is already staring at a list of 200 family members.” Francis said with a bit of a laugh and a shrug. 

 

Hiram raised an eyebrow at Joey. 

 

Joey nodded, “I am the oldest of 5 sibling and my parents both have 8 siblings and don’t forget all the aunts and uncles and god parents. I’m Filipino, our family events can get huge real fast, also if I was marrying a woman we would staring at a list of at least 300, so be grateful for that. Also you already dealt with that issue before with Scott and Josephine’s wedding, I for one don’t have nearly as a great relationship with the extended family as my sister does.” 

 

Josephine smirked at her twin’s comment, she was a very pregnant woman, wearing a well cut business suit, that seemed out of place with her level of pregnancy. She was light  tan with pink undertones, she had straight black hair that was cut into a strong a-line bob, every move she made seemed to be calculated to create the most potential. She met Scott while Joey was in the hospital, she came running up to Scott to warn him, that their parents were coming and that Francis needed pointers on how to deal with them. Scott found the sentiment adorable, and asked her out to dinner. They ended up getting married as soon as she was done with Hastings law school. She was a medical copyright lawyer, and ended up working for Geneticorp, after a short stint at another pharmaceutical company. She knew that as far as it went a good chunk of their family really never liked Joey to begin with but that got worse after he came out. But if anything it was nice to know which relatives were truly ride or die for them. She didn't really like how things got after Joey came out, because they placed all the expectations and responsibilities on her. She didn't resent him for it but she realized that it wasn’t fair, because by all means children should be children not be extra parents. 

 

Joey continued, “But as far as it goes for people we knew in the service, I definitely agree on inviting Johnny and Jamie, that is a fair assessment. I mean Johnny is definitely a factor as to why both of us are still alive. I can think of maybe four marines who would even be interested in attending. It is probably going to be weird inviting more people from the service because I mean DADT got removed shortly before my last tour, so a lot of the folks I served with still don’t know that I am gay, and it would probably complicate matters for some of the more uptight ones to see that I met my husband in an active war zone.” 

 

Joey pulled out his phone and started going through the calendar apps, “I mean it is starting to look like we might need to shift around the July Date to before Up Your Alley because I mean let’s be real there is a good chunk of our friends would be in for Up Your Alley, so if they can attend the wedding before the events happen we will be good. Also I am sure some of the folks would appreciate the free ride into San Francisco. It would be nice to see Johnny and Jamie again. Remember Private Carlos, he was definitely the baby of the bunch, but I bet you he’d try to pounce on Jamie if given a chance.” 

 

“Joey, you do know what happened to Jamie right?” Said Francis slightly concerned.

 

“I know, I know, but you know what happened to Carlos right?” Joey shrugged, “I mean like check this out. The mother of his ‘see I told you I wasn’t gay’ baby, emptied out his bank account of his enlistment bonus, and ran off with her new boyfriend, while abandoning the baby to the foster system without him being notified and you know given that his only sibling died as a child, he knew his parents would’ve adored taking care of his son, because he felt the while they were homophobic and made him feel very trapped he figure they weren't going to be as bad as the foster system in Central Valley. But yeah the only reason he even found out was when they sent him back after the IED that shattered his skull and that whole frontal lob brain injury, he asked to see his kid, and they couldn’t find him.  I’m pretty sure Carlos and Jamie won’t be too weirded out by each other’s shit. Also Carlos always looked like he was ready to pounce Jamie, and knowing his situation, I am pretty sure he is still down. I mean he’s in Fresno, spends most of his time with his son working on whatever new backyard farm experiments he comes up with. Otherwise judging by how active his grindr is every time I am in Fresno, I am guessing he is still on the prowl.” Joey paused when he noticed the rest of the family staring at him, “oh no, i’m only on Grindr when I am in Fresno because I like to make fun of people who are obviously on Grindr while being all homophobic in public, that’s why I always wear my veteran hat and shorts, when i’m there because when those guys start fights with me it just looks bad,” he chuckled. 

 

“Speaking for blast from the past, dad, did you know Aithne is going to visit- Ouch who fucking kicked me?” Interrupted Blaze with a fast pressured speech his reaction greatly surpassing the cause. He bounced in his seat, his hands flapped slightly before he pressed his hands to the tables and he took a deep breath. He twitched as he rubbed one hand over his ridiculously bright purple velvet smoking jacket. He had his brown hair in an undercut that was shaved on the left side, the opposite side from his twin. They always though it funny to do a bit of a mirroring effect when it came to haircuts. They both shared the effect of hemochromatosis but again the eye color was mirrored his left eye was brown while his right eye was green. They weren’t identical twins, but as young children everyone thought they were. But they weren't identical twins because while Aithne has CIPA, a genetic defect affecting one’s ability to feel pain and regulate body temperature, he did not. They were the same height, similar build but he was a bit more squared than her, she was soft. Occasionally they even wore complimentary outfits to meetings because it threw off people when it came to concentration. 

 

“Blaze, let me guess you forgot your medication?” Said Scott. He looked exactly like Francis except his hair was in an undercut slicked back with pomade unlike his brother’s crewcut. He sat up straight with his arms pressed against the table in a neutral defense position, his posture was open and inviting but it also came with the edge of don’t fuck with me. Scott graduated from Cambridge with a degree in pharmacology, continued his schooling at St Andrews. And did some lab work at UCSF, his claim to fame was a series of hepatitis ARV medications he invented with his brother, they also created a fairly successful range of HIV and Cancer drugs as well. They also ran a generic drug manufacture company to help disperse the cost of in inventing new medications. There was a lot of commonly used drugs that no longer had a generic form, and they were fixing that. He had little patience when it came to certain matters and his brother playing it loose and fast with his medication was one of those things. He preferred to have things run like a well oiled machine and for all the brilliance that existed in his siblings he found them all to be rather trying at times, but given his general lack of friends and how poorly that could reflect on people, he figure he needed to maintain some level of familiarity with people, even more so with a kid on the way. 

 

“Nope. Didn't forget just didn’t take it, things was getting mundane decided that from here on out I am skipping the seroquel on Friday nights and the lamictal on Saturday nights, it’s just to rattle the cage a bit until the zest for life returns,” said Blaze with a bit of a sigh as he picked at his blazer. 

 

“Take your fucking meds!” snapped everyone at the table. 

 

Blaze flipped them all off and swished away dramatically into the kitchen.

 

“I better take care of that,” said an older man who was about the same age as Hiram who had silver hair and an amazing beard, he was tall and broad and had fantastic muscle definition for a man his age.

 

“Yeah Wolf, I think this is more of an issue for Daddy to handle and not Dad,” said Hiram as he laughed.

 

“Yeah Wolf, definitely do that and gag him if you have to, because last thing we need is for him to make yet another outlandish announcement of donation or declaring war on the American Healthcare Act or whatever travesty the republicans will come up to undo the Affordable Care Act. I mean yes he means well, but we really can’t afford to offend too many politicians, we want that ADAP and Ryan White funding to be as protected as possible,” said Scott with a tone that suggested joking, but his face said I am so fucking serious, gag him if you need to.

 

Wolf sighed, and got up from the table and head to the kitchen after his boyfriend. 

 

Josephine leaned forward, “so when kids start arriving, will conversations like this still take place in front of them?” 

 

Scott laughed, “Josephine, that is a good question,” he draped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “I am going to have to make an executive decision here, Aithne, Athina, Francis, Dad, and Blaze when he comes back from his little strop, we are not going to talk about the scene in front of the kids. I mean I don't mind if we have people from the scene coming around especially given that some of us are already co-parenting some of the kids in poly families. It would be impossible to separate the aspects but oh boy do I not need the term ‘daddy’ being weird for my kids to use.” 

 

“Yeah Blaze’s kids are pretty funny, I am sure they would make great cousins,” said Aithne with a little chuckle. 

 

“So is Blaze co-parenting all of the kids in that house or just Wolf’s kids?” Asked Hiram, still slightly confused at the family dynamics of his children. “I mean does that make me a grandparent, I mean honestly i’d like to know, because i’d like to know just how much Christmas shopping I need to do and how many college funds I am going to need to set up. Lord knows your mother isn’t thrilled with any of this, but I mean that's why I have been trying to get the divorce so that I can freely handle the funds. I mean I am definitely glad she didn't get spiteful with the money before most of you got control of your accounts, again sorry, Athina, I am ridiculously sorry I couldn’t hold off until you were thirty. Setting up the college accounts are best done at birth, and Blaze’s kids are already 7 and 9.” 

 

Athina dramatically sighed, “I don’t know dad how ever am I supposed to pay for Med School.” She laughed, Scott was letting her use his account because he figured that he was making more money than he could ever spend from his company, that having his sister take free reign of his trust fund was not a drop in the bucket. She hoped he didn’t check the receipts too often otherwise he would probably question why she paid so much rent, even for San Francisco. She was paying the rent for all her housemates, she planned on surprising all of them by returning all their rent money when they decide to move out because honestly she did like her housemates all enough.

 

 “But your mother is really holding onto the other funds. I mean I am offering her a house and leaving her funds alone, but our shared accounts is proving ridiculous. I am almost tempted to bring in lawyers, but I have seen too many divorce proceedings where the people who truly win it all have been the lawyers,” said Hiram with a slight shrug. “Oh Aithne, you know who I bumped into while trying to chase after your mother?”

 

“Sherlock’s mum? Blaze told me,” said Aithne.

 

“You have got to love how William thought going with that middle name was a good idea, I mean who calls themselves Sherlock?” Said Hiram. 

 

“That’s a lot talk from someone who has kids named Athina and Aithne,” snapped Aithne.

 

“Fair point, Aithne, but she seemed really interested in your program,” replied Hiram, absolutely beaming at his daughter.

 

“Yeah Mycroft, the oldest, called me for a case, after I fill up the current openings I going to head over to meet with the potential client,” said Aithne with a slight shrug as if trying to show indifference but the barely concealed smile was betraying her. 

 

Hiram raised an eyebrow at his daughter, curious about what kind of case she was being offered.

 

And at that moment came Blaze getting chased by Wolf, “fuck off I am not going to take the shot.”

 

Wolf turned to Aithne, “apparently your brother skipped last month’s and this month’s Invega, so it looks like we are going to have to titrate him up again.”

Wolf turned back to Blaze, “what do you think is going to happen if you keep skipping your Invega?”

 

“I am going to be off kilter again,” replied Blaze.

 

“And why do you want to be off kilter again?” Asked Aithne.

 

“So the numbers will talk to me again, I miss hi... Uh the numbers I want the numbers to talk to me again. He... uh I miss the numbers. They help with work. Yes the numbers help with work the new discoveries, the lucky ideas all come from the numbers,” replied Blaze waving his hand in the air.

 

Scott groaned and dug his hand into his pockets and pulled out his phone and dramatically started firing off e-mails, “fucking Blaze, now I got to call legal to review anything he signed in the past two months,” he muttered under his breath. 

 

 “Okay the numbers talking to you is helpful at work but is helpful outside of work?” Asked Aithne as she inched closer to her brother. 

 

Blaze shook his head.

 

“Okay Blaze, can you list off the good parts about missing your Invega shots and all the good things that happen because you take your meds? You don’t have to choose to get your shot now, but I want you to really think about the advantages and disadvantages of missing your shot,” said Aithne. “I can call Dr. Paulo if you need me to, that way we can get you to a different thing that might help with the numbers. I mean I get it the numbers help you but remember what else came with the numbers, were those helpful for you?

 

Blaze shook his head and took a deep breath, he sat down in his chair and Wolf sat next to him. “No the other things were not helpful, they were awful, i’ll call Dr. Paulo and i’ll do it in front of you or Wolf, so that you can be sure that I made the call.”

 

Aithne smiled and nodded at her brother, “good to see you are willing to give that a try.”

 

 Blaze turned to his dad and loudly said “hey dad did you know Aithne is going to visit Eurus in a top secret prison facility?” He gave a twitchy smile that went between that shifted whatever it was his eyes were pleading it was sliding between “I am fucking trying to participate in this family” and “I know something terrifying.”

 

Aithne groaned and buried her face in her hands, Blaze was never really good at keeping secrets, but she felt like obligated to her brother to know that she was going to see Eurus because she felt like the info was relevant to him.

 

Hiram looked at his oldest daughter and smiled, “so you finally found her? I bet that is real exciting for you, I hope it goes well for you, but I swear to g-d you better not set any fires or maim anyone after meeting with her. I also hope you keep all your hair this time.” 

 

Aithne rolled her eyes at her dad, “I promise I won’t set any fires or maim anyone after seeing Eurus. And I do indeed hope to keep my hair this time, but with undercut it will take a whole lot of effort to loose my hair these days.” 

 

Scott and Francis both started laughing, Blaze joined in the laughter too. 

 

Aithne looked offended at them.

 

Athina, Josephine, and Joey all looked confused.

 

Wolf rolled his eyes at the laughter.

 

Hiram raised his hand and the brothers all stopped laughing. “You know this means a lot to Aithne, and I’m not to thrilled about them seeing each other, because despite only seeing each other once, they seem to create some strange challenge to causing disaster and they kept upping the ante but Aithne has done a lot of growing up so I can trust her to make her own informed decisions.”

 

Aithne smiled at her dad, “thanks dad.” She turned to Athina, Joey, Josephine, and Wolf and paused to try and think of a way to explain who Eurus was to them that was simple and not likely to talk about Eurus in a way that made them feel safe about her attempt to take Eurus to her program. “Okay as kids all five of us were sheltered or isolated depending on who you asked, we were raised on the family estate and given that mom’s concern that we weren’t going to get a decent education at the local school because of how dismissive they were of Francis’s need for additional help for dyslexia and Scott’s issues with ADHD and general disinterests in most subjects outside of math, science, and literature, she went with home schooling. Well she wasn't the only family who did the same thing, there was the Holmes family, our moms both worked at the same university and took leave around the same time to raise kids. So there was a chance meeting at the university library when they were both coming in to get books for teaching us. So they arranged a play date. Because they had three kids who rarely had contact with other children and there was the four of us at the time,” Aithne, she shrugged her shoulders and took a sip from her wine glass.

 

“But yeah Francis and Scott were getting ready to go to boarding school which was the same for the oldest Holmes kid, Mycroft. They didn’t get along, but you can tell Mycroft was the kind of oldest sibling who was left with all the responsibilities of being a third parent. But that doesn’t excuse him from being the fucking asshole he was. But yeah I think he is probably still going to be an asshole, but probably a broken one, all the conversations I got, makes me think his parents are pissed at him, and he probably was so full of familial duty, he seems like there isn't much else in his life. Well he was a bit rough and made fun of Francis when he had to read something out loud for a game and proceeded to tell Scott to shut up every time he got chatty, basically you know being a damn fucking asshole,” a timer goes off, Aithne looks at her phone and makes her way for the door.  “I’ll be back, it’s a good story but it isn’t worth pissing at the dinner table, i’ll be back from the loo in like 5.”

 

Hiram stood up and made note of Aithne being out of ear shot, “okay all of you I want you to take into consideration that your sister was rather young when all of this happened and by all means she was below the age of reason for the first part. And yes we all thought she had the makings of a sociopath, like doctors all thought so too, but with a lot of hard work your sister proved everyone wrong. But we are all going to agree that her visiting Eurus is mildly questionable but perfectly understandable. And if she mentions a safety plan, we all provide positive reinforcement for that, otherwise I am just going to suggest to her that maybe she not go alone and if she asks one of you to join her. I hope one of you agree to do so. Hint, Blaze that is usually you, but otherwise her next go to tends to be you Athina, but given that you have school, she probably won't bother you over it. Otherwise Francis I think you are next logical choice for her.”

 

Joey looked around at the family he was about to marry into. He leaned up to Francis, “so does your dad do this for all your siblings whenever he feels the need?  I thought that was just a thing you do for big events.”

 

Hiram laughed, “Yes, I do, and for the holidays where their mother comes over, we make a whole day of it. Working with a game plan goes a long way, in divvying up the emotional labor.” 

 

Aithne came back to the table, and continued on as if she didn’t leave to use the restroom, “I am assuming he was used to quiet because the other two siblings was quiet, like Sherlock the middle one was very personable and a big people pleaser, but sometimes things would happen that cracked a hole in that shell, so like when Blaze’s interpretation of the rules of a game was different from his, an argument broke out, a rather vicious one at that. And there was the youngest her name was Eurus, she was quiet and from what my brothers said they all thought there was something off about her, but given that mother and dad told us to try our best to be nice. I decided to go full on because let's be real being the only girl sucked and the idea of a friend that was a girl sounded very appealing. And who knew my luck that out of the families mother can pick for us to meet they just happened to have a daughter who also couldn’t feel pain. So can we all guess where that goes from there...” is 

 

“Bodily harm, arson, and possibly questions about some blood samples so that we can learn more about possibilities for creating a new class of pain medication?” Said Josephine with a slight smile. 

 

Aithne scowled at her sister-in-law. Scott buried his face in his hands slightly embarrassed at his wife’s quip.

 

“Fuck... you aren’t wrong but who told you that?” Said Aithne holding back a laugh. 

 

“Oh no one, i hear and see things and I make deductions, I pick what ever I think would create the most amusing result,” said Josephine. “But feel free to elaborate in how that came into the story.”

 

Aithne rolled her eyes, “okay well my brothers were all not having a good time, but I met Eurus and we got along right away because it just worked, nothing had to be explained to her, it was as if she could just read everything about me in a glance and she understood. It was nice to be understood without explanation, especially the whole thing about pain.. I mean I don’t think she has CIPA but I think she really couldn’t identify pain because it was so below and beyond her ability to figure it out. But like we understood each other in a way I never felt in my life. A lot of our ideas about navigating the world overlapped and it was nice to see someone else like me.” Aithne shrugged her shoulders. “Well yeah that's why I am interested in seeing her again.” She nodded and stayed quiet, pouring herself another glass of wine. 

 

Josephine and Joey lean forward as if expecting more to come.

 

“Okay but where does the bodily harm and arson kick in?” Asked Athina.

 

Josephine and Joey nodded in agreement seriously wondering where the story was going.

 

Aithne stared at her glass not really paying attention to anything, her mind was just full of her at the moment just sorting through paper work and figuring out the billing codes that companies won't through a fit over for some of the more unusual treatment expenses for the clients. She was telling her sister the story of her and Eurus and that was pretty much autopilot at this point. 

 

“Okay Aithne we get it you found someone you found kinship in, but where does the arson and bodily harm kick in?” Asked Joey.

 

“Oh she is in her mind office,” exclaimed Athina as she took a closer looked at her sister, “she does this when she has gone into auto pilot when she has to keep repeating herself. She probably working on billing codes.”

 

“Ooh I haven't done this in a while,” said Blaze as he gleefully tried to kick the chair out from underneath Aithne. The chair stayed still, Blaze howled in pain.

 

Wolf barked out a short laugh. 

 

Scott sighed, stood up, grabbed the back of aithne’s chair, and pulled really hard, “finish the fucking story!” 

 

Aithne was on the floor staring at her brother rather confused as to why she was on the floor. “What the fuck man?” 

 

“You stopped the story at why you felt so strongly about Eurus,” said Francis.

 

“Yes now get to the train wreck,” said Scott, barely suppressing a laugh.

 

“Yes sister I am absolutely burning to learn more,” said Blaze snickering.

 

“Boys stop that,” snapped Hiram, “but seriously Aithne, no one likes being kept this long with a story.” 

 

“Yeah it feels like it had been 2 years with this story,” said Josephine.

 

“Yeah I think I am going to have to agree but tossing on another 2 years,” agreed Joey.

 

“Nah at this point I am guessing we need to add another three,” said Athina, “if you are going to take 7 years to take tell a story, the end better be a good one.

 

“Oh well, yeah we had a conversation and well I guess we did some odd little pact didn't we. Well um yeah so mother had a nasty habit of refusing to separate me and Blaze here, and well Eurus had parents who never really see things... well they could see things but never did they really, really see them. Basically we hatched a plan, that sounded great to a 5 year old, not so rational as a 35 year old. So I er.. um... I set Blaze ablaze.” She shrugged her shoulders, “on the flip side she made her brother’s best friend ‘go away forever’ and burned down their house. I mean that’s what she told me at the Farm I mean look at that Blaze being all alive and shit, you cannot even tell he was set on fire when we were 5, the scaring is fairly minimal. I mean let’s all agree things could’ve gone worse. We are all still alive and I didn’t burn down the house, so we didn’t do too bad.”

 

“Yeah the fact that you tried to set fire to me while I was wearing safety gear for the dirt biking probably went far in minimizing the damage. Funny thing is I am more annoyed that you totaled my dirt bike, than the hospital stay. I mean could you imagine if my sport was something with a lot less flame retardant safety gear?” Said Blaze.

 

“Yeah your mum didn't take too kindly to being told that, she really wanted you both to do prim and proper lady things and she really thought the dirt bike was below you. But I mean you did show your engineering chops early when I did agreed to let you get that junker and helped you get the materials to make it work,” Hiram smiled as he remembered helping his son build the dirt. “The ridiculous thing is your mother is convinced that the dirt bike is the reason why you got set on fire. As if the fact that she referred to you and Aithne as one person, just like she did with Scott and Francis. Oh g-d did you know how long it took me to convince her not to name the two of you something that made a full name in her head. Her stupid red/blue and pink/purple system.” He groaned, “well that is all behind us for the most part. She still won’t sign the papers yet, so as long as she won’t it is going to be very hard to make sure you all get your inheritances because she is pissed at each and every single one of you.”

 

The siblings all laughed.

 

Joey looked around, “so you know the scene that Moira caused at your wedding,” he gave a look at Josephine and Scott.

 

Josephine started laughing, “yeah what was the diversion plan for that one because it failed spectacularly.” She turned to Hiram. 

 

Hiram started, “Athina and Aithne was supposed to distract her, but that was when Athena decided to mention that she was going to be going to med school and already got in. And...” 

 

“Well I was dumb enough to tell her in proximity of many ways to attempt to break one’s hand, and you know how I am trying to be a surgeon,” said Athina with clenched fists and a twitch of her jaw.

 

“So I had to intervene, and well given that I have a bit of a record, she tried to capitalize on that, so she tried running to a cop doing beat patrol in hopes of him believing her. So I had to back off and she bolted for the church,” said Aithne, she said that as she chewed at the inside of her cheek, a habit she knew she had to break because she never knew when she pushed it too far.

 

“So Francis told me I needed to make sure she didn't get to the church, but she fucking tasered me,” said Joey. “And well the cops came by and took me away because they just assumed I tried to attack her henceforth the taser.”

 

Francis laughed, “yeah I tried to explain what happened to the cops and I got arrested for ‘resisting arrest’, like the fuck was that about.” 

 

“So it came my time to shine,” said Blaze, “but she fucking punched me in the chest  two months after top surgery revisions.” 

 

“In which case it became my turn,” said Wolf, “she fucking pepper sprayed me. Basically the woman had a surprising lot of weapons hidden in her clutch, because apparently the colonies are scary.” 

 

“At this point I decided that this was the US, so it would take a hell of a time to find my sealed records, so I gave it one more time, and she managed to grab me by my hair and hurled me into a fucking Our Lady of Guadalupe statue,” said Aithne. “Which gave way to her bursting through the doors of the church.”

 

“Where she caused hell by bursting into a fairly loud anti-Catholic rant that was dripping with racist coded language,” said Josephine. “Where my dad, the church deacon, told her to leave and she left but not before knocking over a set of flowers.”

 

“Don’t forget at that point Francis and I came stumbling into the wedding with a bunch of cops chasing us,” said Joey with a slight frown.

 

“Yeah who can forget, your temporary prosthetic failed and that’s how the extended family all found out not all of you made it back from Afghanistan,” said 

Everyone around the table started laughing at how preposterous the situation got.

 

“Do yourself a favor and don’t let her find out about the wedding,” said Josephine. 

 

Francis sighed, “yeah too late about that, she already is all up in the social media surrounding the announcement.”

 

Joey laughed, “at least there is no church wedding component.”

 

“Dad wants to do a blessing, which if anything just shows a shit ton more progress than any of us ever expected,” said Josephine with a bit of a smile, “good fucking luck getting that approved.”

 

Joey smiled, “yeah that surprised me too,” he suddenly frowned, “buuut I mean we cannot be too sure what he meant by blessing. For all you know this is just him trying to force a way to ensure that he had a chance to do a homophobic rant at the mic.”

 

“Are you saying we are going to have to stop two parents at this wedding?” Said Francis, with a heavy sigh. 

 

Hiram stared into a blank spot on the wall, “that's it, you got 200 guests and I am sure you are going to have a giant wedding court, that is a hell of a lot more players to work with for diversion. Joey, Josephine, do you have some teenage cousins or nieces and nephews who are willing to take one for the team?  Using minors can probably lower all the legal ramifications and increase it on her end. I’m not too fond of this situation she hasn’t ever been angry at all of us at once. Usually she just pushes and pull amongst us, so this makes a rather unstable situation I mean even more unstable, I mean yes we all had our reasons for leaving and she sees that abandonment, it has just been hard to get her to consider coming here. And as much as I don’t want to divorce her, it is the only way I can regain full rights to creating trust funds because she refuses to second any of the funds I have been attempting to start.” He took a sip from his wine glass, “as for your father, we’ll cut the mic if he gets terrible, and for the rest of the night I think if we throw enough people to keep him busy he wob’t have a chance to finish what he has to say into a mic. So who wants dessert?”

 

The Hunter siblings all looked a bit somber, mental illness wasn’t exactly a stranger to them. Blaze had schizoaffective bipolar disorder, and he was until recently med stable but one can’t blame a person for Med burn out which could even happen to those in the business of making medications. Aithne knew she grew up as someone who was concerning for a lot of medical care providers and she did her best to assuage their fears, she never really bothered with updating any diagnosis because she felt that a diagnosis won’t help her at the moment, given how her field often shunned those who were clients themselves, she wanted more than anything to prove to those folks that there was life after institutions. Francis and Scott both had their own bits of neurodivergence, that as they grew older they learned to work with what they had, and both felt lucky enough to have people be considerate to their needs, they knew most people didn’t get that chance. Athina had her anxiety disorder, it was managed. 

 

Basically the entire group of siblings were all just in a minivan driving on a winding road with the driver playing tug of war with the passangers. The navigator riding shot gun is just trying to make sure the occupants of mini van is trying to ensure everyone has what they need while trying to keep the van on the road and heading in the right direction. Which was a fairly funny way of putting things because the time the siblings realized something was off about their family life was the day their mother insisted on taking them all to Blackpool at 3 am. It was a week after Aithne returned home from the farm, she was fighting her mother tooth and nail over every little thing and she refused to let her out of her sight at any given time. Athina the surprise baby, was only 6 months old. They weren't too sure where their dad was, but by that time they all knew that if their mother wanted to do something ridiculous, it was just easier to go with her than argue. 

 

They were more than half way there when things really escalated. The ride was already a bit frieghtening for the siblings their mother kept narrowly avoiding car accidents. It was almost like she was trying to get into car accidents but pulling out at the last second. Francis and Scott were already trying to plot a way to take control of the car, but they couldn’t think of a way to do so that kept them all safe, especially because Aithne was forced to sit in the in the front next to the driver seat. Their saving grace ended up being the fact that their mother ignored aithne’s timer for using the toilet. Aithne begged her mom to stop for a restroom. Their mother told Aithne to hold it, despite the fact that CIPA meant that Aithne was not physically capable of knowing that she was holding it.. Their mother immediately stopped the car at the gas station they were passing by. She screamed at Aithne a whole litany about how terrible and disgusting Aithne was and the only people who would ever love her was her family. And she got out of the car to grab Aithne. She left the key in the ignition and slammed the door shut. Aithne immediately locked the car after mother got out of the car. Her brothers all took to locking the doors after they noticed what happened. Aithne turned her siblings and smiled. Their mother was banging on Aithne’s window demanding that she unlock the car. The siblings debated on whether or not they should drive off, the decision was made for them when their mother started throwing bricks at the car. The gas station attendant tried to calm her down but it just wasn't happening. Francis started the engine and pulled out of the station, praying that they had a decent amount of gas to get back to Cambridge. 

 

When they were far away from their mother, they pulled over at a different gas station, Francis loaded the tank, while Scott changed Athina’s diaper and prepared her some milk, Blaze helped Aithne wash up in the bathroom. He bought his siblings a bunch of different snacks for breakfast. He found a payphone and attempted to call their dad, when his dad picked up, he sounded like a man who was absolutely defeated, it turned out mother left a suicide note before getting them all in the car, it talked about how she wanted them to be together always, and that it was the only way possible that they were going to stay together.  A police officer was sent to the gas station for a Wellness check on the kids, and the officer stayed with them. while their dad drove up to meet them in the town they ended up in and they went home. 

 

Two weeks later their mother came back and acted like nothing unusual happened, she wouldn’t let Aithne leave her side, and the rest of the siblings didn’t really think too much of it because when Aithne first came back they were told by her psychiatrist that Aithne wasn’t going back to residential treatment but rather they were going to test out a form of treatment usually aimed at kids who were very detached and insecure, which required her to spend every moment by her mother's side. They worried about Aithne, but they weren’t sure what to do about there mother, she seemed to act like she always had before the Blackpool incident. Their dad took a sabbatical to ensure that their mother couldn’t possibly dream up another way to try and force them all to be together forever. Time moved on, their mother took on a nasty habit of pushing and pulling all her kids, but the siblings all had each other and a dad who tried to be everything they needed to overcome the short comings in their relationship with their mother. 

 

“Dessert would be pretty damn good right now,” said Aithne smilling. 

 

“So back to Eurus?” Said Athina, “I mean so you are just going to visit her and see if you can bring her to Maureen Russo? Like don’t you have to have approval from the other staff members?”

 

Aithne scowled at her little sister, “i’m not stupid, I am bringing a coworker, they're really good at talking sense into me before I do something stupid.”

 

“I take it, that you are bringing Crystal, since they are pretty much in every decision you make about the program. They are likable but again are you sure they are the best person for this job?” Said Athina. 

 

Hiram took a breath of relief, he didn't want to be the person to ask.

 

Aithne scowled, “they’re going to do a great job their decisions haven’t failed us yet.”

 

“Yeah Crystal is fucking great! I mean she rough around the edges and super fucking angry about everything, and can be an ass to some very important people but she’s great,” added Blaze. “I mean she is also a good advocate for her clients. I am sure if she had some formal education we’d have a real formidable force in public health, but she is real good... I mean they are really good at getting shit done but also calling out bullshit. They got a good read on people and whether or not they fit the program.”

 

“Not going to trust your opinion at the moment,” said Scott, “I am sure you mean well, but you are a bit incapacitated at the moment.” He continued to type furiously at his phone. “Also no decisions on the behalf of the company till a month after your next invega shot.” 

 

Blaze glared at Scott, “you are going to need the rest of legal team for that decision, your wife doesn't count as the whole team.”

 

“Who do you think I have been e-mailing?” Replied Scott, “Josephine is already on Maternity leave, so I am not even bothering her over this little incident.”

 

Josephine laughed, “but that didn’t stop the rest of the legal team from bothering me.”

 

Scott huffed out a big sigh, “excuse me.” He got up from the table, and exited, he was heard talking in one of those “I want to yell at you, but I won’t and I am incredibly disappointed in all of you,” tones.

 

“Well Aithne can I just join you on your trip to U.K., I mean I don’t want to to accompany you to secret psychiatric hospital and I know I won’t be allowed to see the lab, but I am sure I can find something to do,” asked Blaze.

 

Aithne smiled, “of course, but you can’t get into any fights while there.”

 

“I am not going to make any promises I can’t keep,” replied Blaze.

 

“I am going to ignore that comment,” said Aithne.

 

“And for that I thank you,” said Blaze with a smile. 

 

“You still got to talk to Dr. Paulo before going though,” slipped in Aithne.

 

“Okay,” said Blaze, “but i don’t want you all on my case if we decide on something other than Invega.”

 

“Well I wouldn’t care as long as you take whatever you get prescribed,” replied Aithne. “But three meds for managing what you have is actually quite amazing.”

 

Blaze sighed, “looks like I am out of spoons, Aithne, can you lock up the place when  you all decide to leave.”

 

“Have a good night, hopefully tomorrow will be a more manageable day,” said Aithne.

 

“Don’t tell me what to do,” said Blaze in a joking manner, he blew a raspberry at his sister has he walked alway. 

 

Aithne laughed, “Try that again, boy.” 

 

“Girl, bye,” replied Blaze as he continued down the hall to the foyer of the house blowing yet another raspberry.

 

Hiram was slightly confused at how his youngest set of twins referred to each other, because he knew Wolf referred to Blaze as “boy” sometimes and that had implications. He wasn’t too sure what to make of it outside of some kind of weird way of the twins affirming the other’s gender identity. Or it could be that thing some gay folks do where they refer to everyone as “girl”. He shook his head, and watch Blaze walking away from the dining room in that strange swinging gait of his. 

 

“I guess that’s a good night for me too,” said Wolf as he got up from the table. He playfully shove Aithne in a way that most folks would consider really aggressive, but for Aithne she really needed to be knocked off center for it to make a difference. “I’ll get back at him for you,” mouthed Wolf at Aithne. 

 

“Eww...” said Aithne with a scowl, “I don’t want to know.”

 

The rest of dinner party laughed at her reaction.

 

Aithne took another sip of wine from her glass, she thought that today was a rather full one, and she felt the weight of continuous boredom that affected her slightly lift, she smirked, things were getting interesting.

 

Mycroft sighed as the helicopter landed, there was better ways to spend a Sunday morning but this was a hell of a lot better than spending it at church, he was quite glad that his parents weren’t super religious. He walked through security and exchanged pleasantries with the regular staff. When he went down to the basement where Eurus was located, he received an update from her direct staff, he was surprised that BSL took him so long to learn, an entire month, it didn’t take him that long to acquire a language since he was a child. But it was definitely a lot faster than doing a back and forth of texting, plus there was some things that just aren’t properly conveyed with text. He walked down the hall to Eurus’ cell. He paused a moment to check that he didn’t receive any new urgent messages. He heard Eurus... wait was she trying to time her greeting for a dramatic entrance, oh she keeps misfiring. Oh this is funny, nice to know she can make mistakes. He was tempted to just leave, just to mess with her.

 

Eurus stood in the middle of her cell staring at her favorite spot in the ceiling when she heard a familiar set of foot steps. “Hello Mycroft.” She looked forward, the door didn't open yet, “hello Mycroft,” she said again. The door still didn’t open yet, she sighed greeting a person before they came in tend to throw them off, but when this kept happening, now just seemed silly. The door opened, “hello Mycroft,” said Eurus.

 

Mycroft was laughing, “so you really try timing yourself on your greetings for maximum effect, I mean I heard all those false starts.”

 

Eurus twitched, “well I don’t know why you are here brother, you aren’t due here for another 3 days. Also nice touch on making sure all the staff here for me are deaf. Who came up with that idea?”

 

“It was a precaution, nice to see you are having a verbal day. Also how are you doing, sister dear?” Replied Mycroft. 

 

“You really should’ve used that one before the whole ‘no contact’ rule,” said Eurus with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

 

“I would’ve but you did tear apart that orderly, still don’t understand how you managed that,” said Mycroft marching the level of annoyance present in Eurus’s voice.  

 

“It was easy once you see where the ligaments met the joints, it was all a matter of picking the right pressure points after that,” said Eurus with a bit of a smile, “but I mean I can’t possible be the first person to do it.”

 

“Well I hope you don’t plan on doing it again any time soon, because mummy and father have an idea and although I advise against it, they are persistent,” said Mycroft, his nose wrinkled in disdain. “There will be someone coming to talk with you soon, be as honest as you possibly can with her, and do feel free to talk about your time here.”

 

“That seems like a trap, brother My,” said Eurus, her face remaining blank, but her eyebrows raised in intrigue gave her away. 

 

“It isn’t,” said Mycroft, “this person is coming in to see if you are a fit for a re-entry program. You finish this program you are considered ready for a life amongst the world. So really don’t play around too much with the evaluator.” 

 

“I wouldn't dare mess with anyone with such capabilities, I really wouldn't want to miss out on a chance like that,” replied Eurus trying to sound like a decent person to Mycroft.

 

“Personally I don’t like the idea, but Mummy and Da wants me to at least give it a try,” said Mycroft, “have a decent day.” With that Mycroft turned around and promptly exited Eurus’ cell.

 

Eurus stood there in mild shock, that was unexpected, nice to see some surprising things, that was indeed rare.  She smiled at the idea of getting out, but where would they be sending her. It had been quite some time since she was allowed near a computer and the last time she had unfettered access was when she was given access to Twitter for her brother. The IT man was spectacularly unpersuasive, he was not pleasant to everyone. Most of the times the solutions he barked out without even looking at the computer was correct. Apparently he was autistic from what he told his co-workers when they made fun of him for not understanding a lot of stuff people apparently just know. She had some what she guessed was empathy for him because she understood that on some level. Also go Mycroft for hiring a bunch of disabled people, she laughed she wondered where he snatched all these folks from, was all the deaf and Hard of Hearing folks like that since birth or are they former soldiers who acquired the hearing deficits, they never interacted with her long enough for her to glean the info. 

 

Sherlock’s visits pretty much reduced any urges she had kill any of the orderlies or care providers, the boredom was a bit manageable when she was able to know that there was something to look forward to. She really did only kill to remind people that she was still there. She knew that every person she killed meant a cover up had to be done, and people would be missed and others would feel guilty, they left huge craters on the earth when she killed, there was no ignoring her when she killed. She felt that her middle brother was absolutely singular in his attention, that and he liked puzzles so as long as you had his attention you were interesting and she wanted ever so much to be interesting. Weird is only okay when you are infesting and she didn’t just want to be weird... well weirder than she was no, there was no going back at this point. She read the books, she didn't even get a chance, she wasn’t even at the age of reason when they put her away with no hope of returning. 

 

She wanted to try different, she was going to make this evaluator believe that she was ready for the outside world no matter what it took. She almost didn’t care where they would take her, there was a lot of world to see. She was in the belly of a secret prison island, there was only looking up at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took me so long to update... I mean let's be real I am actually writing this as a weird little exercise in getting through my CPTSD, I had a nasty habit of maladaptive day dreaming. Focusing it and making it a story, makes it easier to manage. And the thing is these past couple of months I have found my self not slipping as much as I used to thanks to the fact that I am doing new things in an attempt to move past all my trauma. But believe me all this is going somewhere.


End file.
